


Hummingbird

by kellsbells



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-11-29 21:02:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11448999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kellsbells/pseuds/kellsbells
Summary: Astra wakes in her funeral pod to the sound of a hummingbird. She falls to earth and finds that her killer also gave her a gift.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sralinchen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sralinchen/gifts).



> To Sralinchen, in the hope that you have a very happy birthday. :)

* * *

The first thing to come back is her hearing. She is somewhere quiet, she can tell, but her body continues the irritating habits it has; of breathing, of pumping blood through her veins, of neurons firing. She doesn’t know why it irritates her, but it does. The other sound, she is not sure about. She knows it’s not her, but there’s a thrumming noise, a sound like a heartbeat, but only if said heartbeat belonged to a hummingbird.

 

She tries to clear her throat, to make a noise, but nothing comes out except for a dry wheezing. Her vocal cords feel wrong, dried out. She worries about that for a moment, before wondering why. Why worry, when she doesn’t know where she is, _what_ she is?

 

The ambient noise begins to increase, slowly at first but then it is a cacophony, searing her brain, and the heat is almost unbearable, and so she draws her body inward, some instinct telling her to protect the hummingbird, protect it, and then the noise is too much and she is gone, back to the darkness.

 

She doesn’t hear anything else for a while, but when she does it’s a familiar voice. She isn’t sure what a voice is, or what she is, but she knows that this sound is one that she knows.

 

_“Little One,”_ her brain supplies.

 

She is suddenly aware that, along with a brain, she has hands. Feet. A body. She is not just a floating, incorporeal speck. She is a being of some sort.

 

She hears the hummingbird again, and is unaccountably relieved at the noise. She had thought it had perished when… the noise and the heat.

 

“Aunt Astra? Astra? Alex! I think she’s waking up!”

 

***

 

She doesn’t wake up then. Her mind sends her back down the rabbit-hole, not ready for her to face the familiar words and sounds of the earth language – English. She is not ready to face what happened. Her hummingbird is safe, and so she sleeps.

 

When she wakes the next time, she opens her eyes. She looks around and sees that she’s in a white room. It smells like… pain. Green, burning her, ripping her insides. She is up and ready to flee in a second, and then _she_ is there. Lean, tall, her body disciplined. Her hair is short, her clothes fitted. She is a soldier.

 

“Who are you?” she rasps out. _“Brave One,”_ her mind supplies again.

 

“Alex Danvers,” the woman says, cautiously. _Alexandra._ She spreads her hands, showing she is not armed. “I am not here to hurt you,” Alex says, but that’s what they said the last time, and she has to protect the hummingbird.

 

“I won’t let you hurt it,” she snarls, and Alex nods.

 

“We won’t. We won’t hurt your baby, Astra.”

 

It floods back, then, her long, slow fall to earth via the Phantom Zone, Myriad, the other prisoners, Non and his madness. And Alexandra plunging a sword into her back.

 

She can remember dying, and her brain can’t process it. She falls to her knees, her arms wrapped around her abdomen, and Alexandra is there, wrapping her arms around Astra, and she lets go, succumbs to the terror, the pain, crying in the arms of her killer.

 

She eats, she knows, and other people come by. But she is almost catatonic by then, her mind withdrawing from the trauma, and soon enough she is asleep, deep enough that there are no dreams.

 

When she wakes again, she recognises her surroundings, and she recognises the blonde hair that is fanned out on the side of the bed. Beneath it, she knows, is her Little One, Kara Zor-El, the wonderful legacy of her sister. She strokes the girl’s hair on instinct, letting soft tendrils slip between her fingers. It feels wonderful.

 

“Aunt Astra?” Kara mumbles, sitting up, wiping her mouth absently where there is a considerable pool of drool.

 

“Little One,” Astra says, with a hint of a smile. She doesn’t know how she’s here, but to be able to see Kara smile once more is a great gift.

 

“I thought I’d lost you forever,” Kara says, suddenly throwing herself onto Astra and holding her tightly. It is wonderful, being here in her arms. She remembers 13-year-old Kara, so earnest but with a sly sense of humour, and the grown woman she encountered when Supergirl announced herself to the world. Had she but known that Kal-El had actually found her niece, she would have taken her in, would have given her a family, her own family. But the great bumbling fool left her with humans, and Kara became protective over them. Astra concedes to herself that Kara may have been right, in the end – the humans are not so destructive as she had once thought – but she still mourns the years they could have spent together.

 

It is a while before they are ready to let go of one another, but once they do, Astra asks the question that she has been holding onto since she encountered Alexandra.

 

“Little One, is it true? What your sister said? That I am… pregnant?” Astra asks.

 

“Yes, Aunt Astra. It seems like there was a sort of… genetic transfer, so far as our scientists can tell. When you were stabbed, some of Alex’s DNA somehow entered your bloodstream, and when you came close enough to the sun and your body regenerated, it somehow recognised the foreign DNA as being… a deposit? I guess?” Kara says, her face scrunched up in discomfort.

 

“So, I am pregnant, with the child of your sister. Your sister, who killed me?” Astra asks flatly.

 

“Um… yes,” Kara says, nodding.

 

“I… see. And what of Non, and the other Kryptonians?” Astra asks. “I must assume that Non is imprisoned or dead, since your sister is not under mind control and since you still live.”

 

“He’s imprisoned. Blind, but alive. He is not interested in Myriad anymore, or much of anything,” Kara says, her face sad. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but Myriad failed and he decided to use it to kill everyone in National City instead of controlling their minds. He left me no choice.”

 

“I did not think he would. And perhaps I should feel differently,” Astra says, passing a hand over her eyes in weariness, “but I am glad that you prevailed, Little One. What of the others?”

 

“Some were imprisoned, but most of them went into Fort Rozz into stasis, intending to wait until we were all dead, I guess, so they could take over after. Or maybe Non was going to take them someplace else. I had to lift it into space to get the Myriad signal away from earth,” Kara says, shrugging.

 

“The entire station?” Astra asks.

 

“Yes,” Kara nods.

 

“You were able to lift the entire prison into space, and yet you are sitting here opposite me, hale and alive?” Astra asks. It is almost too much for her mind to take in.

 

“I did. I would have died, but Alex flew my pod into space and dragged me back to earth,” Kara says, shrugging.

 

“Your sister seems like a remarkable human being,” Astra says. She is, for once, almost speechless.

 

“She is. She is the best person I have ever known, human or Kryptonian,” Kara says, and there is a hint of warning in her voice. Astra doesn’t know how she’s supposed to take that, and the revelations she has heard have taken the last of her energy for the moment. She sleeps, letting her mind rest and her body heal under the sunlamps the DEO has so thoughtfully provided for their former enemy.

 

***

 

Alex Danvers is tired. Weary, bone-tired. Since Kara came out as Supergirl, her life has become 300x more stressful, and added to that, she came out, got a girlfriend, moved in with said girlfriend, and then got dumped by said girlfriend a few weeks later, following the “quickest marriage proposal in lesbian history,” according to Maggie.

 

And now, here she is sitting in the alien bar, alone, nursing her third scotch, trying and failing not to think about the giant, pregnant elephant in the room.

 

So, maybe she didn’t realise at the time that the seething, simmering feeling in her blood when Astra was around wasn’t actually hatred, but attraction. That’s acceptable; she didn’t realise she was gay until Maggie, after all. And really, it was better that she never realised that she was attracted to the Kryptonian, since she ended up having to kill her. So why does the universe think it’s fair to drop a living, breathing Astra In-Ze back into her life? Not only is she alive and healthy, but she’s also carrying Alex’s fucking BABY!

 

M’Gann snorts from behind the bar, and Alex looks up and glares.

 

“You aren’t supposed to listen,” she snaps.

 

“I wasn’t, you’re yelling, Agent Danvers. I thought J’onn taught you how not to project?” M’Gann shoots back, coolly.

 

“Touché,” Alex sighs.

 

“It is pretty fucking funny though, don’t you think? Like, in terms of cosmic accidents?” M’gann says, snickering a little.

 

“I’m glad you find it funny, Miss Martian, because I didn’t plan on being someone’s baby daddy, let alone my sister’s dead aunt. I mean, do you think I was, like, a mass murderer or something, in a previous life? Or I stole Ghandi’s favourite sandals? I mean, what the fucking fuck did I do to deserve this?” she asks, plaintively, and she shoots a glare of absolute hatred at M’gann when she bends over, laughing so hard that she snorts again.

 

She mutters some uncomplimentary things under her breath, and J’onn taps her on the shoulder, making her jump several feet straight up.

 

“That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about, Agent. Now get yourself home before I have to put you on report,” he says, mock-threatening.

 

“Fine,” Alex sighs. She’s searching for the keys for her bike when a shadow swoops down from above, lifting her up and into the night air.

 

“Kara, you could give me some warning,” she complains. Kara readjusts her hold, pulling Alex close as she flies a little faster.

 

“We both know you would have told me to back off, but you’re not riding your bike after three scotches, Alex, no matter how well you can hold your liquor,” Kara says sternly.

 

“Whatever, mom,” Alex snarks.

 

“You need to come to see her,” Kara says, not for the first time over the last few days.

 

“Why, Kara? I didn’t do this to her,” Alex says.

 

“Maybe not on purpose, but you did kill her, Alex. You owe her a talk, if nothing else. And you can’t just get someone pregnant and then leave them,” Kara says, laughing at her own joke.

 

“Oh, shut up, you giant pain in my ass,” Alex says.

 

Kara kisses her on the cheek noisily.

 

“You love me, Alex, and you know you’re going to do what I want eventually anyway, so you might as well give in,” she says, in a sing-song voice.

 

Alex grumbles under her breath, and Kara drops her on the balcony of her apartment, waiting until she’s safely inside before flying off to meet with Lena, Alex assumes. Kara thinks she can keep a secret, but if she thinks she’s being subtle by spending almost every spare minute with the Luthor woman, and spending the rest of her time talking about how wonderful Lena is? She’s not succeeding.

 

“I’m not gay, Alex,” Alex says, in a high, stupid imitation of Kara. She hopes her supersister isn’t listening in, because she doesn’t want another lecture about talking about people behind their backs.

 

Thankfully, Kara doesn’t return to berate her, so Alex takes off her boots, throws herself into the shower, and pulls on a tank and some boxer briefs before passing out, face-down, on her unmade bed.

 

The following morning, she wakes with a mouth that tastes like Satan’s buttcrack, and a head that is throbbing harder than an analogy she can’t think of right then because her head is throbbing so hard. She drags herself out of bed, drinks a bottle of water, takes some Advil, drinks some full-fat cola, her go-to hangover cure, and goes for a long run. She showers and is at work by 7am.

 

She makes it through to lunchtime before J’onn orders her to go and speak to Astra in the med bay.

 

“I will make a general announcement about the upcoming blessed event if you do not speak to General In-Ze, Agent Danvers, and believe me, your colleagues will not make this easy on you. Imagine, for a moment, Major Lane’s reaction to the news,” J’onn says, with barely-disguised glee in his voice.  

 

“Fine,” she says, horrified that he would threaten her with Lucy Lane, of all people. She drags her feet a little as she reluctantly makes her way to the med bay. She is being a petulant teenager, she is aware, but this is a hell of a thing to have dropped on a person, she reasons. A little petulance is to be expected.

 

When she stops in the doorway of Astra’s room, the General is in the foetal position. She looks nothing like the proud warrior she was when Alex met her. Then Alex hears the sound of crying, and she can’t help it – she is across the room, enfolding Astra in her arms. Astra cries herself out, her body relaxing in Alex’s hold, and all the while Alex is whispering soothing nonsense to the other woman, she is asking herself why Astra is not pushing her away, because not only did she kill her, she somehow managed to knock her up for when she came back to life! What was going on?

 

Astra is soft and pliant in her arms, and once she’s stopped crying, Alex begins to feel a heat between them. She’s rubbing Astra’s back and stroking her hair, and Astra is collapsed against her, and it feels far too intimate for what they actually are to one another. But Alex doesn’t know what to do, because not only does it feel right, she doesn’t know how to withdraw herself without making it hopelessly awkward for both of them.

 

Thankfully, they are saved by Kara, who bursts into the room with her usual enthusiasm, and throws herself on top of them both immediately, proclaiming that she’s glad they’ve made up. Alex manages to withdraw herself fairly gracefully once Kara has almost crushed her bones, and she sits down, looking up sporadically to find Astra watching her thoughtfully.

 

Astra is allowed to leave the DEO the following day on the proviso that she stays with either Kara or Alex. Alex is up first, because Kara has Supergirl duties and CatCo to juggle, not to mention her shiny new girlfriend. Who she still hasn’t actually told Alex about, but that’s another subject for another day.

 

“I only have one bed, so I’ll sleep on the couch,” Alex says, as she shows Astra into the apartment, pointing out the bathroom and kitchen, as if they aren’t already completely obvious. She stands in the middle of the room, hands in her pockets, unsure as to what to do next.

 

“Brave One, you do not need to do this,” Astra says. She has spoken little since she woke, and even less to Alex.

 

“What do you mean?” Alex asks, looking at Astra for the first time since leaving the DEO.

 

“You don’t need to do this. Disrupt your life to take in stray aliens,” Astra says, almost bitterly.

 

“Well I wish someone had told me that when I was fifteen,” Alex says, wryly. “It’s kind of what I do, Astra. And it’s not much of an imposition. I don’t mind sharing my space with you. I owe you.”

 

“You owe me nothing, Alexandra. You slew me in battle. I would have done the same, and I would have regretted it afterwards, as it seems you have. You owe me nothing more than you owe any other vanquished enemy,” Astra says, her face set.

 

“Astra,” Alex says, sitting on the couch, pushing her hair back with one hand as she thinks. “You’re not just any enemy that I might have had to fight and kill. You’re Kara’s aunt. She loves you and I had to kill you, and I will never be able to forgive myself for that. I wanted you to be on our side, to work with us. I never wanted this to happen.”

 

“You had no choice, Brave One. I intended to kill your Martian. You did the right thing.”

 

“Maybe. But I still wish I hadn’t done it,” Alex says, and she looks up, again, to meet Astra’s eyes and show her the regret she feels about the whole thing.

 

“It is done, Alexandra,” Astra says, and she sits next to Alex ( _too close, her mind whispers_ ) and takes her hand, squeezing it gently. “It is done, and I still live. We live with what we must, and we move on. If it is forgiveness you need, you have mine. I do not blame you, and I thank you for all you have done for my niece, Alexandra Danvers. I owe you a debt of gratitude for what you have done for her when I could not.”

 

Alex doesn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nods, and somewhere inside her, something releases. Something that has been knotted up for so long that she didn’t even realise it was there. She feels better immediately, but somehow worse, too, because she knows that she needs to cry, to get it all out, to move forward, but Astra is here, and she is absolutely not crying in front of Astra.

 

“Are you hungry? Let me make you something,” she says, far too brightly, and she leaves the apartment practically at a run to buy ingredients. It doesn’t take long to get to the grocery store she normally visits, so she goes and grabs one or two of everything that she can think of to feed a hungry Kryptonian. She’s back at her apartment within 20 minutes, but her head is clearer now, and when she walks in to find a confused and dazed Astra still sitting in the same position she left her in, she just smiles.

 

They eat a large meal, and Astra, while less effusive about it than Kara is, clearly enjoys earth food just as much as her niece. It makes Alex smile, to see the great General’s eyes light up while eating waffles and syrup.

 

Alex introduces Astra to the television remote, to Netflix, and to her games console. She doesn’t use it much, given that she spends her days shooting aliens for real, but every now and then she plays Uncharted or Fallout 4 and gets immersed in a world completely different from her own. She shows Astra how to use the controls and is tickled pink when she sees Astra sticking her tongue out as she tries to steer Nathan Drake’s jeep through a muddy wasteland.

 

They take a walk after dinner, and Alex shows Astra where she goes running by the river, and where her flight to Geneva came down, saved by Kara in her first act as Supergirl.

 

“My niece did this… became this, Supergirl, to save you?” she asks, one eyebrow tilted up in that curious way she has.

 

“Yes,” Alex says, feeling a little defensive, even though she herself had reamed Kara out for that particular decision.

 

“That was a worthy goal. To save you, even though it put her in danger? You taught her well,” Astra says, with the air of someone passing a judgement.

 

“I taught her to hide her powers, Astra. To be ordinary. So ordinary that no-one would ever look twice. Any decision she made, to save me or anyone else? She did that by herself. She deserves the credit. All I did was teach her to be a coward, to hide who she was, so that she would be safe.”

 

Alex knows she sounds bitter, but she also knows that she’ll never forgive herself for how she treated Kara back then, as if her powers were a liability, as if Kara was a burden.

 

“And yet, she lives. She learned to control her powers, to be careful, to keep herself safe, even as she saved others. You may have taught her to hide herself, but you also taught her to be brave, Alexandra. I see it in every action of my niece’s. That stance of hers, when she wishes to be intimidating?” Astra imitates it, hands on hips, eyes looking upwards. “That is from you, Alexandra. She is this city’s hero, and you are hers. Never doubt that.”

 

She’s too close, and Alex doesn’t know how to handle it, so she takes in a shaky breath, one that she is sure Astra can taste, as close as she is, and nods.

 

Astra is going to be the death of her, and she’s not sure she even minds.

 

***

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Astra, co-habitating.

* * *

Astra is pregnant. Intellectually, she knows this. She can hear her hummingbird’s heart, she can see it if she twists herself into the right position to use her ‘x-ray vision’, as Kal-El apparently christened it. She is having a baby that is half her, and half Alexandra Danvers.

 

For Astra, however, this turn of events is difficult to digest. Astra’s birth was a mistake. The codex, the birthing matrix – they could not make mistakes, so Astra, the second twin to be born by 12 minutes, was blamed. How an infant could be in any way responsible for their own creation, she isn’t entirely sure, but that is how she was treated, from long before she could speak. She was branded as an outlier with the ridiculous white streak that they wrote into her genetic code, and she was expected to tend the In-Ze gardens, perhaps. She was expected to stay out of the way and disappear, eventually, until she was just a footnote in the family history. Alura, however, would never accept that, and Astra herself would not let her own birth stand as a mistake. So she learned and she grew and when it became clear that no matter what she did, she would never be appreciated, she joined the Kryptonian Military Guild. Unlike the rest of the Guilds, your status did not matter in the Military Guild. She could have been a member of the House of El itself and she still would have been treated like she was worthless. Somehow, that was comforting. Astra took the opportunity by the throat. She climbed the ranks quickly, never quite liked, but always respected. By the end of her first tour, her squad would have followed her into hell. By the end of her third, the entire army would have followed her anywhere.

 

Loyalty among soldiers is a rare thing. There are those who will never fit in, as there are in every group. But once a soldier has a place with their fellows, they are friends for life. More than friends, really. Siblings, of a sort. Almost as intimate as lovers. In her soldiers, she found a family. It was the only family she ever expected to have. In fact, she had been fairly certain that her mother had her reproductive capabilities stunted when Astra was a child. So to find herself here, sitting on a couch in an apartment on Earth, pregnant and about to bring a child into a world she herself knows virtually nothing about? It is not something Astra In-Ze had ever considered, not even when she married Non, her Lieutenant. He did not want children, and she would never be granted permission to use the birthing matrix, given that her presence on Krypton tainted them all.

 

She flicks through the channels on Alex’s television, settling on a news programme. She sits back against the soft leather of the couch, both revelling in, and disdainful of, the comfort it offers. Her back hurts virtually all the time, now, despite the baby’s relatively small size.

 

The television programme is talking about global warming, and how disastrous the rise in sea levels will be for those living at certain elevations. Astra sighs. She has no intention, now, of starting any scheme to save this world from itself. Clearly humans are too individualistic to work together towards a common goal. Myriad had been seen as a weapon, even by those on Krypton, but to these humans who valued their individuality so fiercely, it was horrifying. Astra had been incensed when Alexandra explained what Non had done when the humans broke free of Myriad. What good was the earth if all of its people were dead? Presumably he had allowed the Coluan woman to talk him into killing the humans and beginning his own kingdom here on another planet.

 

Astra switches the television over to gaming mode, and loses herself for several hours playing Fallout. She doesn’t understand why it is so addictive; she has never been interested in this sort of scenario before. But it absorbs her attention completely and she doesn’t even hear Alex arrive home.

 

“Hey, Astra. You hungry?”

 

“Brave One,” Astra replies, carefully saving her game before switching it off. “I am always hungry, I believe. Especially now I have another little one taking up space in my body.”

 

“I can imagine,” Alex says, wryly. Astra turns to look at her and sees that her face is bruised. Astra is up and standing next to Alex in less than a second, turning her head carefully with a hand on her chin.

 

“Who did this to you?” she seethes, suddenly seeing red. No-one can be allowed to hurt Alex. She will tear them limb from limb. No-one can be allowed to hurt her bond-mate.

 

It is that last thought that makes her stop in her tracks. She drops her hand, staring at Alex, and backs away.

 

“Astra, it was just another alien. He got drunk on Aldebaran ale, and he threw a punch. I was distracted, it was basically my own fault,” Alex says, holding out a hand to appease or to calm, perhaps.

 

“Yes, of course. I apologise,” Astra says, backing away. “I have to… shower, I will be back soon.”

 

She turns tail and flees, and when she is in the bathroom she holds her abdomen, listening to her hummingbird’s heart, taking comfort from it. She has always admired Alex, her Brave One. She is a strong and intelligent human, the best of her race. But now there is something else, more than admiration, more even than lust.

 

Astra showers because she said she was going to – not because she really needed to – and when she returns Alex has made food for both of them – all three of them, really – and Astra feels bad, because all Alex has done since Astra crashed back to earth is to look after her. Astra is not repaying that very well by hiding here like a coward.

 

She dresses quickly in the sort of comfortable clothing that Kara has insisted she wear during the evening. They seem to involve a lot of soft, sweet-smelling fabric of various pastel shades, with pictures of rabbits and birds on them. Some also involve sushi or hot dogs. Astra is not sure why the decorations are necessary, but she has come to take most earth customs in stride.

 

She walks into the living room wearing her “Hello Kitty” pyjamas, and Alex freezes when she sees her. Astra looks at her in confusion, but Alex just reddens and then continues with her cooking. It appears to be a pasta dish – perhaps the Bolognese Kara has spoken of? Her hummingbird appears to like it, however, and its heartrate increases a tiny amount.

 

Dinner is served shortly afterwards, and Astra eats with gusto, appreciating the unique tastes and textures. She had not enjoyed food quite this much on Krypton, and not at all in the Phantom Zone. Nothing tasted right in that hell of a place. She was devastated to realise that Kara had been trapped in there almost as long as she and Non had.

 

“How was she, when she joined your family?” she asks, and Alex tilts her head a little in confusion before answering.

 

“Kara? She was… lost. I didn’t understand, not then. To me I could only see that she was taking my parents’ attention, and I was really, really pissed that Superman had dumped her with us. I’m still mad about that,” Alex says.

 

“As am I,” Astra agrees. 

 

“She was like a little ghost, for a while. Everything she touched crumbled. She was so frightened. I barely saw her. And I… I was being an ass to her. I wanted to be with my friends, and she was so weird, you know? Teenagers aren’t exactly known for being accepting of people being different. She didn’t know what birds were. I mean, my parents looked after her at home, sure. But when we were at school or out with my friends, it was just me. And they drummed it into me that I had to protect her secret, no matter what. So Kara and me… we were stuck with each other, and I was so, so pissed,” Alex says, in between bites.

 

“You were a child, Alexandra. It was not your duty to look after my niece. She should have been with me. Had I only know where she was…” Astra shakes her head in regret.

 

“She wanted to be my friend, and I kept pushing her away, you know? I didn’t want the weird sister with the sensory issues and all that. I was already different enough,” Alex says, a little bitterly. “It changed when she saved a woman and child from a car wreck. I couldn’t believe that she could do those things, you know? The stuff she did at home, it was all… she just broke stuff. But when I saw her rip a car door off and lift a fully grown woman with one arm – I realised that she was special. Different, and weird, yeah. But special. There was a reason why she was here, when her whole planet died. And that’s when I realised that I had to protect her. She was a lot better after that, or at least I like to think she was. She told me stories about home, and taught me a little of your language, and when she cried at night I would hold her. In time we became inseparable. I still always remember what she looked like when Clark brought her to my Mom’s house, in her white robes, and her little face looking up at him, and then at us, like she didn’t know who to trust.”

 

“I almost wish I was still considered a villain – I could happily kill Jor-El’s son for abandoning her,” Astra says, without thinking.

 

Alex laughs, loudly, and Astra looks up to see her eyes twinkling.

 

“Honestly, some days I would happily do the same. He said he couldn’t handle looking after a kid, but in the end it was pretty much me who looked out for her. He was a grown man, almost 25 when Kara arrived. The world sees him as this paragon of virtue, this man who would do anything to save humans. I see an asshole who couldn’t even look after his own cousin when she needed him,” Alex says, sobering.

 

“He is not my favourite person, I will admit. He is unworthy of that crest he wears,” Astra says, and she catches Alex looking at her in a way she can’t quite interpret. “What? Why are you looking at me that way?” she asks.

 

“I was just wondering if that’s how your sister looked when she was passing judgement,” Alex says, and Astra purses her lips.

 

“Are you making fun of me, Agent Danvers?” she asks, a little petulantly.

 

“Not at all,” Alex says, surprised.

 

“Oh,” Astra says. Alex is still looking at her speculatively, and she finds herself reddening again. Alex looks at her curiously for a long moment before returning her attention to her food.

 

Neither of them speak much for the rest of the night.

 

***

 

A few nights later, Kara is visiting and has her head on Astra’s belly, listening to the fluttering beats of hummingbird’s heart.

 

“You know you don’t need to put your ear to her belly, what with the super-hearing and all?” Alex says, from the doorway. Astra grunts, ignoring the comment. She enjoys the closeness with her niece, and has missed the pleasure of simple, caring touch.

 

“Don’t you listen to it? It’s very soothing,” Kara says. “Come here.”

 

Before Astra realises what is happening, Alex’s ear is pressed to her bare abdomen, in the hope that it will assist her human ears to hear. Alex can hear nothing, of course, but the few seconds that her skin is on Astra’s feel like a tortuous eternity to Astra. Her breath is warm against Astra’s belly. She can imagine all too vividly other situations in which Alexandra’s breath might touch her there, and the thought is simultaneously so exciting and so terrifying that she almost falls onto the floor.

 

“Are you all right, Aunt Astra?” Kara asks, concerned.

 

“I’m fine. I just… it’s nice to listen to her, is it not?” she says, indicating her still-flat belly.

 

“It is. And you think it’s a her?” Kara asks, excitedly.

 

“I do. Given the method of conception, I would imagine that two women would make a female child,” Astra says, sitting up straighter and moving her body away from Kara and Alex. Her entire body relaxed as Kara returned her head to Astra’s belly and Alex went into the kitchen to start dinner.

 

“Are you glad to be pregnant?” Kara asks, quietly.

 

“I am… not exactly glad. It was not something I expected, or would have ever dreamed of, even. You know how it was on Krypton. Twins were not wanted, and so I was never expected to breed,” Astra says. “Now that my little hummingbird is here, I welcome her. I only hope I will be a worthy mother.”

 

Kara’s full-body hug startles her, although it probably shouldn’t have, in retrospect. Kara was always an emotional soul, and being on earth had only exacerbated that. Astra holds her niece tightly and thanks Rao for bringing Kara to her. She does not deserve her niece; she knows that. She only hopes that at some point she will be able to give back to Kara what Kara has given to her.

 

Alex asks her, delicately, a few days later, if she would like to see Non. Astra thinks about it for a while, and agrees. Alex takes her to the DEO desert base, and they listen to music the whole drive there. It’s soothing, being in Alex’s company, even when they don’t speak. Sometimes especially when they don’t speak.

 

“What is he like, now?” Astra asks, as the base comes into sight.

 

“He’s… shrunken. His eyes are gone, burned. You knew that, right?”

 

Astra nods.

 

“It seems to me that all of the fight has gone out of him. He eats and he prays and he sleeps. Lucy, the Major in charge of this facility, she believes he might be sorry for what he’s done. I don’t know if I would go that far. I think he’s sorry for how it all turned out, that’s for sure.”

 

“Thank you, Alexandra.”

 

Alex walks her to the cells and gets a chair for her to sit on. The cells are familiar; she remembers when they held her in one of those. It seems like a long time ago, now. But she can still feel the sting of the needle and the scorching torment in her veins from the liquid kryptonite.

 

“Do you want me to stay?” Alex asks, in a low voice.

 

“I am fine,” Astra says.

 

“I know that,” Alex says, nodding. “But if you want me to stay with you, I will.”

 

“No. It’s not necessary. Thank you, Brave One,” Astra says, sitting on the chair and setting her eyes on Non for the first time since her death.

 

His eyes are covered with bandages. His face is more heavily lined than it was before; probably an effect of the prolonged exposure to Kryptonite. He may not live much longer than a human if they keep him here. Astra can’t bring herself to care, now that she knows what he did.

 

“Lieutenant,” she says, and he jumps.

 

“General,” he says, after a moment, fist on heart. “I did not hear you. The Kryptonite dampens my powers.”

 

“I am aware,” Astra says.

 

“I failed you, General,” he says.

 

“You did,” she agrees. He flinches a little.

 

“I completed your plan, but your niece was able to free the people of the signal somehow,” he says.

 

“That is not the failure of which I speak, Non,” Astra says. “I speak of the failure to act with any moral fortitude. I speak of the failure to follow my orders. I speak of your attempts on my niece’s life, and your attempt to kill everyone in this city, and perhaps on the whole planet. What were you thinking?”

 

“I… I was weak, without you, wife. I lost my focus. The Coluan woman, she persuaded me that I should rule over the humans, or that they should perish. I let her persuade me. I am sorry.”

 

He sounds sincere. But Astra knows this man of old.

 

“And what of your attempts to kill Kara? With the Black Mercy, with your Brainiac? What of the pain you caused her, killing those she loved?”

 

“I… I did what was necessary. You could not see that she was one of them,” he says, his teeth gritted.

 

“I know she is one of them. But she is also one of us, Non! She was my sister’s daughter! How could you think I would want that, even to avenge my death? I know you knew that I would never want that.”

 

“She did not deserve your love, General. She is a filthy half-breed at best, given the time she’s spent on this planet full of their filth,” he spits, and she thinks… “there you are, husband”.

 

“I think we are, as the humans say, done here, Lieutenant. You may consider yourself stripped of all rank. You belong to the humans now. Should any Kryptonian give you assistance or succour they will answer to me. And while there is no divorce on Krypton, I will say this. Krypton is gone, and I am married to you no more, Non-Ur. Do you oppose me?” Astra asks.

 

“I do not. You are free of the bonds we once shared. May we meet again in Rao’s light,” he says, bowing his head.

 

“In Rao’s light,” Astra says, nodding. She doubts it, given that Rao will not want her after all the evils she has committed. But she completes the ritual anyway, and leaves with a lighter heart, in some ways, because she is no longer chained to the man she once cared for.

 

Alex appears as soon as Astra turns the corner.

 

“Are you okay?” she asks, looking Astra over in concern. Her hair glints red in the harsh light of the cells, and makes Astra’s breath catch in her throat. She is truly beautiful, this human woman.

 

“I am well,” Astra says.

 

“What did he say?” Alex asks, and then stops. “You don’t need to tell me, sorry. It’s none of my business.”

 

“I… he told me exactly what I expected,” Astra says, heavily. “Could we go home, please, Brave One?”

 

Alex looks at her in surprise, but nods, and puts her arm round Astra’s waist tentatively. Astra leans in to her, and they walk like that back to the car, Alex ignoring the odd looks that some of the agents were giving them. Astra was asleep before they had even reached the main road, but awoke when Alex pulled into the parking garage underneath her building.

 

“Come on,” Alex says, pulling Astra to her again, and Astra decides not to protest. Alex leads her to her apartment, making some soothing herbal tea, and gets Astra settled on the sofa. She insists on rubbing Astra’s feet, for some reason.

 

“It’s a thing that some human women enjoy, when they’re pregnant. I suppose because their feet hurt, with the extra weight they’re carrying?”

 

Astra just nods. The feeling is pleasant, and Alex’s hands on her skin are more than pleasant. She tries to ignore the tingling sensation that Alex’s touch sends through her body, and tells Alex what happened with Non.

 

“He was my husband for a long time. Ten years on Krypton, and another twenty-five in the Phantom Zone. Plus the thirteen or so we spent here. He cannot fool me. He tried to make me believe he was repentant, but I believe the only thing that he was sorry for was that he hadn’t succeeded in killing Kara along with every last one of you. He called you all filth.”

 

Astra sighs.

 

“I’m sorry, Astra. I will make sure that Major Lane knows not to believe his act.”

 

“I divorced him,” Astra says. “It was not a thing that was done on Krypton, but I believe our marriage vows, such as they were, have run their course. I believe he is not the man I thought I knew.”

 

“I’m so sorry, Astra. Of all the things to happen right now,” Alex says, sympathy etched into the lines on her face.

 

“I have not seen him since I died, Alexandra. He betrayed me. I am the last vestige of authority from Krypton, and I believe I have the right to divorce him. Do you disagree?” Astra asks, eyes narrow.

 

“No, I didn’t mean… Generally speaking, people who divorce see it as a painful thing to do, that’s all. And I’m sorry if you were hurt by it. You deserve a lot better than Non. He wasn’t a good man,” Alex says, reddening. She returns her attention to Astra’s feet, rubbing them more vigorously, and the feeling sends tidal waves of sensation throughout Astra’s body.

 

“I… I understand. Our customs are not yours, and divorce did not happen on Krypton, as you know. It is immaterial, since he will remain in prison for the rest of his life. But I wished to… put an end to it, our association. I have a new life now, and I do not wish my daughter to be tainted with Non’s actions,” Astra says.

 

“Our daughter,” Alex corrects, absently. Her thumb is pressed into the arch of Astra’s foot, and Astra is hard pressed not to jump across the couch and pull Alex to her. She takes a deep breath.

 

“Our daughter. Yes,” Astra says, slowly.

 

Alex looks up, startled, and seems to realise what she’s said.

 

“I mean, biologically, she will belong to both of us, I didn’t mean anything else by that, Astra. I’m sorry. I have to get back to work, I have some DEO work, work that I have to do. I… call me if you need me,” Alex says, fleeing the apartment so quickly that she could be Kryptonian.

 

Astra stared for a long time at the space at the end of the couch where Alex had been, wondering what had just happened.

 

***

 

_“Our daughter.”_

What the fuck had she been thinking? Yes, technically it was true, and at some point in the next 3-4 months, Astra was going to give birth to a little baby that was part Alex. But it was all a mistake, an unintended consequence.

 

“So, how’d you guys get pregnant?” she imagines someone asking.

 

“Oh, I stabbed her through the heart with a giant sword – from behind – and accidentally got some of my DNA on her, and it entered her bloodstream so that when the sun resurrected her, she had some sort of spontaneous pregnancy situation. You know, that old story.”

 

She shakes her head, which makes her bike weave a little, and she quickly gets a hold of herself. Bike safety was not a thing that Alex Danvers messed with. She saw too many motorcyclists when she did her ER rotation – before she was shanghai’d into the DEO – to know that there was a good reason many doctors called them ‘donorcycles’.

 

Her feelings for Astra are only strengthening as time goes on, and she needs some space. So she calls Kara and asks her to come in to the DEO as soon as possible.

 

Kara is tied up at CatCo but eventually comes by, finding Alex in her office dealing with a small mountain of paperwork.

 

“What’s up?” she asks, flopping onto Alex’s couch gracelessly.

 

“Could you maybe take care of Astra for a while? I know that you have a lot going on, but… I just need some space. It’s a lot,” Alex says, not meeting Kara’s eyes.

 

Kara is suddenly right there in front of her, lifting Alex’s chin with gentle fingers.

 

“What’s wrong, sis?” she asks, voice brimming with compassion.

 

“I… I can’t live with her, not for a while. It’s just too hard,” Alex whispers.

 

Kara looks at her for a long moment before nodding.

 

“Okay. It’s about time I took care of her anyway, she was released into my custody as well as yours.”

 

She stays a little longer, telling Alex about Snapper and his most recent ridiculous demands, and Alex nods along with her tale. But then she’s gone, and when Alex gets home, Astra is, too.

 

She hopes that neither of her Kryptonians are listening as she sinks to the floor in front of the couch, letting herself really cry for the first time since Astra’s pod landed. She cries because she is in love with Astra, but there is no way they can ever be together. She doesn’t even know how Astra can bear to look at her. She deliberately killed Astra rather than immobilise her that night on the roof, and even now she couldn’t articulate why. She could trot out the same old excuses; that she had to save J’onn, that she was protecting Kara, but the simple fact was that Astra made her feel a lot of complicated things and that when it came to Kara’s Aunt, Alex didn’t make the right calls. She should never have stood by and allowed the army to step in and torture Astra, she shouldn’t have let Astra give them bad intel, she shouldn’t have allowed any of it to happen.

 

She cries until she is thoroughly sick of herself, and then throws herself into the shower, intending to have a small snack and then head to bed. There’s a knock at the door, however, as she’s finishing up in the shower, and she calls out for whoever it is to wait. She pulls a gun from a drawer near the door and ensures that her robe is covering all the interesting parts before she opens the door.

 

It’s Maggie. Alex almost closes the door in her face, but Maggie has been crying and she has never been able to say no to this woman, not since the first moment they met.

 

“Come in,” she says, defeated. She leaves Maggie to her own devices while she pulls on a pair of PJs that cover her up – she doesn’t want to give any mixed messages, here – and then she goes to the kitchen and makes some of the herbal tea that Maggie likes, without really thinking about it.

 

“What’s wrong?” she asks, handing Maggie a mug and sitting down on the couch near her.

 

Maggie has been gone for 4 months, and Alex hasn’t seen her at all during that time. There was one text message exchange, where they sorted out their belongings – Maggie dropped by one day to pick up the stuff she’d left behind and to leave Alex’s belongings – and her key to Alex’s apartment. Alex was pretty sure she had cried for a full two hours when she came home to find that key on the doormat.

 

“I fucked up, Al,” Maggie says, her head in her hands. She sounds like she’s been crying for a while.

 

“What do you mean?” Alex asks, trying to muster up some sympathy for this woman who broke her heart not very long ago.

 

“I should never have left, Alex. I got scared. I’ve missed you so much,” Maggie sobs, throwing herself forward into Alex’s arms. Alex pulls her close automatically, stroking that long dark hair and wondering what the hell is happening in her life right now. She asks Maggie to marry her, and she can still see Maggie’s blinding smile in her mind. But then Maggie says no, a couple of weeks after they unofficially move in together. And here they are four months later and Alex is having a baby with the crush she killed in the field over a year ago, and _now_ Maggie wants her back. Sure, universe. Sure.

 

Maggie is still crying, her hands twisting in Alex’s shirt, and Alex doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t hate Maggie. Okay, maybe she did for a little while. But she is pretty sure that she doesn’t want to get back with her either, because she didn’t enjoy the insecurity of being with someone who could turn hot and cold in seconds, depending on which of their buttons you accidentally pressed.

 

Maggie seems to sense her reluctance, after a while, and she sits up, wiping her face with a napkin that Alex finds.

 

“You… you don’t feel the same way, I’m guessing?” she asks, and she gives that half-smile that she probably thinks is adorable but that makes Alex just want to grab her and shake her and ask her to be real for once in her fucking life.

 

“Honestly, Maggie, I don’t even know how I feel right now. You have to admit, this is kind of… out of the blue. We haven’t seen each other since you left,” Alex points out, quite reasonably, she thinks.

 

“I… I understand. I didn’t know how to approach it, and I knew you were probably still really angry with me, and I just… I wanted to see you, so… I’m sorry, Al. I shouldn’t have bothered you,” Maggie says.

 

Alex’s stomach sinks. She does love Maggie and doesn’t want to hurt her. And the truth is that she really isn’t sure how she feels about anything right now.

 

“Look, Maggie. I’m not saying no,” Alex says, running her hand through her hair as she tries to gather her thoughts.

 

Maggie looks at her, stunned.

 

“I’m not saying yes, either. My life is even more complicated than it was, before, and I need a little time to untangle my thoughts. And my feelings. Is your number still the same? Can I give you a call when I get my head together?” Alex asks.

 

“Of course,” Maggie says, and her smile is so much brighter, now. She looks hopeful and shy and sweet and Alex starts to feel that thing that she used to feel when Maggie looked at her that way, and she doesn’t know how to feel about that. Maggie left her and broke her heart. And Astra… Astra is carrying her baby, through some utter fucking cosmic joke.

 

“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” Alex promises, and Maggie gives her a hug that lasts way too long to be platonic. Alex steps back and nods, her heart thumping. She’s so totally screwed. Like, in every possible direction. Maggie smiles at her shyly again and leaves, throwing those dimples at her like a weapon, and Alex closes the door and then bangs her head off the frame several times.

 

What the hell does she do now?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astra and Kara bond, the baby grows, and Cadmus raises its ugly head

* * *

 

Astra is quiet the first night she stays at Kara’s. When Kara arrived at Alex’s apartment to talk to her aunt, she thought Astra looked extremely upset for a split second as she explained that Alex needed a break. But then Astra had smiled and everything seemed to be all right. She is a pleasant house guest, and though she doesn’t know how to cook (or rather, she doesn’t know how to cook earth food so that it’s not inedible) she keeps Kara’s apartment spotless.

 

She isn’t talking much, though. She listens to Kara and is encouraging and caring and all the things Kara always remembers her being. But she seems withdrawn and a little sad, almost wistful. Her belly is starting to grow a little and the hummingbird is growing – they both check on the baby daily. Okay, so maybe Kara sneaks more than one look a day, but that is her prerogative, as the kid’s grown up cousin, right? (And one of the perks of being a superhero; x-ray vision that isn’t actually x-ray and therefore doesn’t harm the baby.)

 

Kara asks Astra on the fourth night if she wants to talk about anything. Astra smiles brightly and says she is content just to spend time with Kara. So Kara decides to bring out the big guns. Firstly, she makes Astra some tea and asks her aunt to play with her hair. Astra can’t resist playing with Kara’s hair; has never been able to since Kara was tiny.

 

When Astra is relaxed, Kara tells her how she has fallen in love. Astra is pleased for her, but asks her to be cautious, because Lena Luthor is still the sister of her cousin’s enemy. Kara smiles up at her and asks if Astra would be interested in meeting Lena, since her parents are not around anymore. Astra’s eyes immediately fill with tears, and she agrees to meet ‘this young lady who was stolen her Little One’s heart’.

 

Kara has deployed several of her best weapons, so now she goes for the jugular. She pouts.

 

“Why won’t you tell me why you’re upset?” she asks, and Astra’s eyes fill again.

 

“Little One, I…” she trails off.

 

“Please, Aunt Astra. I’ve missed you so much,” Kara says. She wonders if fluttering her eyelids would be too much, and decides against it, just letting her lip tremble the tiniest amount.

 

Astra is in love. With Alex. Alex, Kara’s recently gay sister. Well, not recently gay, but recently out, anyway. The sister who _killed_ Astra a year ago. The sister who, somehow, managed to impregnate Astra through some sort of weird DNA-stealing Kryptonian gene.

 

“You love her? Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Kara asks, sitting up and pulling Astra into her arms where her aunt begins to sob helplessly. Her hormones are making her a little more emotional than usual, to say the least, and Kara has had to refill her ice cream stash three times within the four days  Astra has stayed.

 

“She doesn’t want me. She sees me as an enemy, and I do not believe she wants anything to do with this baby of ours,” Astra says, still crying into Kara’s shoulder.

 

“Why would you think that, Astra?” Kara asks, truly mystified.

 

“She asked you to take me away. I am an inconvenience, Kara. Why would she want me around, invading her space and eating her food? She has more important things to do than look after wayward aliens,” Astra sniffs.

 

Kara can’t help it; she laughs. Astra looks incredibly offended.

 

“You know, Astra, I think Alex would disagree with you there. Looking after wayward aliens has become her life’s work, at this point. And as far as I know she is single. She hasn’t been with anyone since she broke up with Maggie,” Kara says, leaning back and pushing Astra’s hair away from her face. She knows that Astra hates it, but she has always loved her aunt’s white lock of hair. She twists it around her fingers and smiles. She remembers doing that same thing when her fingers were short and pudgy.

 

“Who is this Maggie?” Astra asks, sniffing. Kara hands her a tissue and she blows her nose, managing to look incredibly ridiculous as she does so. Kara holds in a giggle with difficulty.

 

“Her ex. They moved in together, sort of, and Alex actually proposed, but Maggie turned her down,” Kara explains.

 

“What is wrong with this Maggie? Is he an idiot?” Astra asks, indignant on Alex’s behalf.

 

Kara smothers another giggle.

 

“Maggie is a she. Her ex-girlfriend. Alex is gay – she is attracted to members of her own sex,” Kara explains.

 

“I did not realise that,” Astra says, eyes narrowing. “Do some humans only mate with those of their own sex, and some only with the opposite?”

 

“They have some… different ideas, here, about sexuality. I never explained to Alex how it was on Krypton; that the majority of people were pansexual and that those who were only attracted to one sex or the other were rare.” Kara shrugs dismissively.

 

“Probably best. Their views seem a little primitive,” Astra says, sniffing.

 

“Do you want me to talk with Alex?” Kara asks, and Astra shakes her head.

 

“No, Little One. If I am to address this with Alexandra, I wish to do so on my own terms, as a grown woman. I am glad to have your support, however,” Astra says. Kara nods and hugs Astra again.

 

“Okay. But if you need my help, you let me know, okay?” Kara asks.

 

Astra agrees, and they go back to watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey, which Kara has become addicted to. She thinks that she has passed the addiction on to Astra, and is strangely proud as she watches her aunt eat buttered popcorn by the handful, watching the show avidly.

 

Kara decides to stay her hand for now, but if Astra and Alex are both interested – and Kara has an idea that her sister is _very_ interested in Astra – she will step in, if necessary, to see that true love wins the day. Because Rao has sent Astra and Alex an impossible child, and if that is not a sign, Kara Zor-El doesn’t know what is.

 

***

 

It’s been two weeks. Two weeks of only seeing Astra at the DEO when she comes in for her weekly checkup. The baby is fine; she is growing a little faster than Alex had anticipated, but everything seems more or less in line with the timeline she and Dr Hamilton had come up with. In 3 months or so Astra is going to give birth, and Alex is going to have a daughter.

 

Kara came to see Alex the night before and asked if Alex could look after Astra for a while. She didn’t look tired; she looked… antsy. Alex had a very good idea of why – Lena Luthor – but she wasn’t going to say anything until Kara decided to tell her. She understands why Kara might be reluctant – it’s not like Alex has ever been particularly warm towards the youngest Luthor. But she has more than proved herself by now, and J’onn surreptitiously scanned her mind at one point or another to check she didn’t have any nefarious intentions, and declared her one of the most genuinely caring humans he’d ever met. So Alex isn’t worried. She is more offended that Kara hadn’t at least told her that she likes women, because Kara was the first person she went to – after Maggie, and even so, that was only because Maggie was the person she was coming out _for._

 

In any case, Astra will be returning later, and Alex is frantically cleaning the apartment while cooking a dozen huge meals to ensure that her pregnant Kryptonian is looked after. She has to look after her own child, she tells herself, but in her mind she’s picturing that delighted smile of Astra’s that steals over her face when she eats something she particularly enjoys.

 

When she’s finished with her cleaning and cooking, she puts the food away carefully in batches, sitting down to reward herself with a cold beer, and then there’s a knock at the door.

 

She answers as always, gun in hand and the face of her watch flipped up so that she can call Kara with her Superwatch if it happens to be Cadmus or Rao knows who else at the door. But it isn’t Cadmus; it’s Maggie. Alex couldn’t honestly say if she’s relieved or disappointed.

 

They have spoken by text a number of times, and Alex has agreed to try being friends, again. They haven’t actually set eyes on each other, though, and Alex is a bit confused as to why Maggie is here.

 

“Hey,” she manages, and Maggie smiles up at her, dimples deployed.

 

“Hey, Danvers,” she says, her voice a little rusty, and something inside of Alex _growls_ in response. She has heard Maggie’s voice like that before, first thing in the morning after a night of lovemaking, and her body wants that again. It’s been a while.

 

“Sawyer,” she says, smiling. She returns her gun to the drawer, locking it, before turning. “Can I get you a drink?”

 

“Sure,” Maggie says. “Beer?”

 

Alex grabs one from the refrigerator and uncaps it, going to sit on the couch, not too close. She passes the beer to Maggie and then picks her own drink up, taking a long swallow while she waits for Maggie to tell her why she’s here.

 

“So, do you know what day it is?” Maggie asks, a sly smile on her face.

 

“Um, Sunday?” Alex replies, confused.

 

“Well, yeah, Danvers. But it’s also the anniversary of a certain first kiss,” Maggie says, teasingly.

 

Alex takes in a sharp breath. She counts back in her head and realises that, wow. Maggie is right. This is the anniversary off the first time they kissed – properly, that is; not the abortive kiss when Maggie told her that she was fresh off the boat and all that.

 

“Wow. It really doesn’t feel like a year,” Alex breathes, staring at nothing. “I can’t believe it.”

 

“Me either,” Maggie says, her voice husky and a little deeper than usual. When Alex looks up, Maggie is right there, eyes dark, licking her lips.

 

“I miss you,” she murmurs, and Alex feels that powerful pull that she’s always felt in Maggie’s presence. She still isn’t sure she wants to be more than friends; Maggie hurt her deeply and she’s not sure whether she wants to open herself about that, not to mention the whole pregnant Kryptonian elephant in the room.  She tenses as Maggie moves closer, the smell of her still the same, and then Maggie is kissing her. It’s familiar and it’s something she wanted for a really long time. She wanted to marry Maggie. But she realises as soon as Maggie kisses her that she doesn’t want that anymore. She’s just starting to pull back when the door opens.

 

She turns away from Maggie, her hand darting to her hip for a weapon that’s not there. It’s only Kara, however, and Astra.

 

_Fuck. Astra._

Alex’s mind has gone blank, and she doesn’t know what to say. Maggie is standing up, waiting to be introduced, smile wide as ever. Of course, because Alex had been kissing back, almost right up to the moment when the door opened.

 

“Um, this is… Maggie Sawyer, meet Astra In-Ze, Kara’s biological aunt. And you know Kara,” Alex says. Maggie steps around the couch and around a paralysed Alex, offering her hand to Astra, who shakes it, bemused.

 

“Congrats on the little one,” Maggie says, and Astra looks confused until she realises that Maggie means her baby and not Kara.

 

“Of course. Thank you. We are very much looking forward to meeting her,” Astra says, touching her belly unconsciously.

 

“We?” Maggie asks, head tilting. Alex wants to punch herself in the face. It would be preferable to going through this. In fact, Kara punching her in the face would be preferable to this little scenario playing out in front of her.

 

“Alexandra and I. The child is ours,” Astra says, and she is looking at Alex now, gaze hooded and unreadable.

 

“The child is yours, as in belonging to both of you? Biologically?” Maggie asks, and her eyes are narrow, now.

 

“Yes,” Astra says, shortly, still looking at Alex.

 

“It was kind of an accident, you see,” Alex rushes to say, not sure who she’s explaining to or why. “There was a DNA transfer when Astra and I fought last year, and she… well, her body sort of latched on to it and decided to procreate. Kryptonian biology, huh? Crazy,” Alex says, and her only response is the flat gazes of three women. She decides that discretion is the better part of valour, and closes her mouth.

 

“Well, I should be going,” Maggie says, jaw tight. “It looks like you have your hands full here, Danvers. You should have told me; I would have left you to your… new family.”

 

Alex looks at her helplessly. Kara glares at Alex for a second before showing Maggie out hastily, and after a moment it’s just the three of them. Astra is staring at Alex in that predatory way she had when they first met, like Alex is a tiny baby oryx and Astra is the lioness about to take her down. Alex can’t help but stare back, swallowing.

 

“Ooooh… kay, so maybe you should sit, Aunt Astra?” Kara says, leading her aunt to the couch.

 

Alex takes the opportunity to flee and make some tea, bringing the drinks back to the coffee table and then clearing away the beer bottles left from Maggie’s short visit.

 

“So, Maggie came to visit, huh?” Kara says, with a smile that says that she would happily throw Maggie (and perhaps Alex) into space.

 

“Yeah,” Alex says, hand rubbing the back of her neck. “She… she came by a while back, said she wanted to get back together. I told her I wasn’t sure, and then… she came by, and… well. You saw.”

 

“So you’re back together now?” Kara asks, sharply.

 

“No, no. I don’t want that. She hurt me so much, Kara. You know how it was, after she left. I guess I just… didn’t know how to say no.”

 

“Did she do this without your permission, Alexandra?” Astra asked, nostrils flaring. Her eyes were blazing, her Kryptonian heat vision spilling out. She looked incredibly hot, and Alex felt her heart speed up.

 

“No, not exactly. I mean, she didn’t ask. But she didn’t force me, or anything. I just… it made me realise that I don’t want that, not anymore. I used to want her to come here and tell me she was sorry and that it was all a mistake,” Alex says, quietly. “But not anymore. I have… other considerations, now.”

 

She looks at Astra and has to take a deep breath, because Astra’s eyes are on hers and the energy in the room has changed. Astra looks murderous, and ridiculously hot, but Alex can’t quite decipher the expression on her face. She only knows that she wants to bite Astra’s bottom lip.

 

“Well, I can see you guys have a lot to talk about,” Kara says, trying to stand, but Alex pulls her back down.

 

“Don’t even think about it, Zor-El. You’re staying for dinner. I haven’t seen you for weeks,” Alex says. It’s true; she does miss Kara. But also she feels like she needs a buffer between her and Astra, at least until Astra looks a little less like she would like to eat Alex alive.

 

They have a quiet dinner, lasagne – one of Kara’s favourites – and then a pint of ice cream for each Kryptonian while Alex eats an apple, looking at the ice cream wistfully. She is trying to be healthier because she’s almost thirty and she is going to have to run after a Kryptonian child for the next eighteen years.

 

Kara tries to leave before dessert, but Alex glares at her. And then again as soon as she’s finished with her ice cream, but Alex drags her back down yet again and tells her to spill whatever it is that is so urgent.

 

“Lena Luthor,” Kara says, and Alex thumps her on the arm, cursing at the sharp pain in her hand. Stupid invincible Kryptonians.

 

“Finally! I can’t believe it took you this long to tell me! How long have you been seeing her?” Alex asks, and Kara gapes at her.

 

“You knew?”

 

“Of course I knew, Kara. You’re not even a little bit subtle, you do realise that, right?” Alex says, exasperated.

 

“I thought I was hiding it really well,” Kara says, sulking. The Pout™ is very much in evidence.

 

“You are terrible at hiding things,” Alex says. “Does this look like hiding your giant boner for Lena?” she asks, wringing her hands together and speaking in a high voice, “Lena is just so beautiful, like her eyes are like the sunsets on Triton 4, and her smile – Rao, it makes my heart do a funny skippy thing, and Alex, do you know how smart she is? Because I was going to be the youngest member of the science council on Krypton and even I can’t keep up with her,” she finishes, simpering and fluttering her eyelashes at Kara.

 

Astra snorts and then grabs a spoon, shovelling some more ice cream in her mouth, as Kara glares at her.

 

“I do not sound like that,” Kara insists.

 

“Sure, Jan,” Alex says, and Kara rolls her eyes.

 

“I should never have introduced you to tumblr,” she mutters, and Alex just smiles smugly. “Anyway, now that I’ve told you, can I please go? I haven’t seen Lena in _forever!”_ Kara says, deploying the pout one more time.

 

“Fine, go, be with your new gal pal,” Alex grouses, but she smiles and catches Kara in a tight hug. “I’m really happy for you, Little One,” she says. Kara draws back to glare at her use of the nickname, but then she sinks back into Alex’s arms.

 

“I love you too, doucheface.”

 

She gives Astra a hug and then disappears out of the open window, despite Alex asking her to please use the door from now on. Alex rolls her eyes; she never really expected Kara to do anything normal like using a door. It’s all part of Kara’s charm.

 

“So, you do not wish to return to your ‘ex’?” Astra asks.

 

“You mean Maggie? No,” Alex says, shaking her head.

 

“Good,” Astra says, holding Alex’s eyes for much too long.

 

“Okay,” Alex says, after a loaded silence that has her wishing she didn’t have to breathe, because right now it feels like her chest is going to explode if Astra looks at her like that for one more second.

 

Astra nods sharply and then lifts the remote control, choosing a new show from Alex’s Netflix menu, and after the first episode, her feet are in Alex’s lap, and it’s like she never left.

 

Alex can’t say she minds in the least.

 

***

 

Astra is tired. She is pregnant, and while theoretically she is invincible, indefatigable on this planet, it appears that pregnant is pregnant, no matter whether you are superpowered or not. She is exhausted most of the time, and she has never felt less herself than she does now. Once she was a General of Krypton’s army, her sister the lead Judiciar of Argo City, and Astra’s star was on the rise. She was once put forward to be the next Supreme Commander of the Armies of Krypton, but then she and Non realised what was happening with the core of their planet, and that was the end of her military career. Because she would not stand by and watch her planet burn. Thankfully she hadn’t had to, in the end, because she was in the endless hell that was the Phantom Zone. A small consolation, perhaps, but a consolation nonetheless.

 

Finding out that Kara had not only witnessed Krypton’s demise, but had spent 24 years in the Phantom Zone herself, had almost broken Astra. She wept for days and Non had almost deposed her, then, saying she was weak to care about the girl at all, given the circumstances, given what Alura had done to them. But Kara was not at fault. She was a child, and Astra would not hold the sins of her parents against her.

 

And so Astra is here, in a nondescript apartment in National City, Earth, carrying the child of a woman who killed her. Astra had never imagined that she might live twice, that her biology would allow her to live again after brain activity had ceased. She had never imagined that her body would clutch at a small group of cells from another being, that her body would use its unique biology under a yellow sun to make a child with her biology and Alexandra’s.

 

Her hummingbird is halfway there, now, fluttering and developing inside of Astra’s body, and each small movement from within her sends a ripple of wonder through Astra’s entire body.

 

The last few weeks with Alexandra have been comfortable. Since Maggie’s short visit, things have settled, and they have come to something of a silent understanding. Though they don’t speak of it, Astra knows that Alex wants her, and she also knows that the reverse is true. The timing just hasn’t felt right, and Astra is a patient woman. She has had to be; planning military campaigns did not give one much choice in the matter. Planning and more planning was always her way; a contingency for a contingency. She is used to thinking her way through a problem, and she has tried to do so with Alexandra. But there are just too many variables to consider. Alex is an enigma to her. Perhaps she is right and Alex does want her, but in what way? As a sexual conquest? As a friend with… benefits, Kara called it? Or as a spouse and co-parent? It is impossible to tell, and Astra is frustrated and tense when she thinks about it.

 

The breaking point was already fast approaching, but it comes more quickly when Astra goes to the DEO for her weekly checkup. She is stepping out of Alexandra’s car, swearing under her breath as she awkwardly shuffles her bulk out of the car, when she feels something like a punch to her upper back, and then another in her leg. There is another that hits her almost exactly where Alex stabbed her, and she feels her hummingbird’s heart speed up as she slowly falls forward, ripping the car door off as she falls. She is unconscious before she registers the impact of her fall.

 

She has impressions of her unconscious time; the sound of weeping, distant shouting and beeping noises that she can’t really interpret, and a hoarse voice screaming. She has no real understanding of where she is or what has happened, but she knows that she is a person, that she exists. It’s not like when she died; she felt nothing, then, until Sol revived her. She is in the dark, but she remembers being able to see and speak and move.

 

Her first view is of Kara’s drawn face, and she tries to speak, tries to move, but the tide pulls her back under before she can make a sound. She hears her niece singing to her in Kryptonian a little later as she drifts, and it is soothing. Her second view is of the lights on the ceiling, and when she turns her head, she can see Alexandra asleep in the chair next to her. Alex is beautiful as always, but her face is almost grey and her eyes have dark circles underneath them.

 

Astra tries to speak, but her mouth is much too dry. She shifts a little, trying to reach the water she can see on the wheeled table next to her, but she can’t reach it. She suddenly remembers her hummingbird, and is relieved when she looks down to see that her bump is still present. She can’t hear the heartbeat, though, and that has her moving, rolling enough that she can touch Alex.

 

“Alexandra. I cannot hear her. Alexandra?”

 

Alex wakes up, staring at her blearily for a second before she’s standing, shouting for Kara.

 

“Astra,” she manages, before throwing herself into Astra’s arms.

 

“Alexandra. I cannot hear her heartbeat!” Astra repeats, but then she realises that she can’t hear Alex’s heartbeat, either, or her own.

 

Kara is there, suddenly, accompanied by a blast of wind, and she is wrapped awkwardly around both Alex and Astra, and there is suddenly a storm of weeping around Astra.

 

“What happened?” she asks, weakly, and eventually Kara and Alex draw back.

 

“It was Cadmus. They found out about the baby, and they tried to kill her. And you,” Kara says, her face thunderous. “We weren’t able to catch them.”

 

“And the baby? Is she… does she live?” Astra asks, because yes the bump is still intact, but that does not mean that her body is not holding the body of her dead child.

 

“She’s fine,” Alex says, wiping tears from her eyes. “I think your body defended her, somehow. It filtered out the Kryptonite, somehow, from entering her body, and I think that’s what blew your powers. She’s totally fine, content and happy,” Alex says, placing her hand on Astra’s belly and stroking it affectionately.

 

“Thank Rao,” Astra murmurs, closing her eyes. It had been too close. “How did they find out about our child?”

“They were bugging Lena. My girlfriend? I told you about her. Her mother is the leader of Cadmus. We thought, since the Daxamites invaded and we fought them together, that she had softened a little when it came to us. Apparently, we were wrong,” Kara says, grim and furious.

 

“This woman is the mother of your beloved?” Astra asks.

 

Kara nods.

 

“I am sorry, Little One. Your bondmate is to be commended, to come from such hate with the strength you describe.”

 

Kara nods, looking miserable, and Astra takes a deep breath. It is a lot to take in, and her body is battered and bruised. She falls asleep in between breaths, and doesn’t wake until the room is dark. Alex is asleep, again, in the chair next to the bed. Astra leans down to tap Alex on the arm, and when Alex looks at her, she simply lifts the blankets on the bed in invitation. The bed is large enough for two, and the chair is uncomfortable, she tells herself. But when Alex is next to her she cannot help but pull Alex’s face to hers and to kiss her until the other woman is panting for breath.

 

“That was… a surprise,” Alex says, eyes wide.

 

“Not an unwelcome one, I hope?” Astra asks, and Alex smiles.

 

“Not an unwelcome one, no,” Alex agrees. She leans in this time, and she teaches Astra all about the kissing inventing by the French nation across the Atlantic Ocean. It is a pleasurable lesson.

 

When they return to the apartment a few days later, Astra sees no need for Alex to sleep on the couch, and tells her so. There is no argument on the matter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain hummingbird takes flight, and Astra takes action to end the threat against her family once and for all.

* * *

 

It’s a week until the baby is due. They have been debating names between them, Alex, Astra, and Kara, and even Lena Luthor. Astra met her not long after the attempt on her life and her hummingbird’s. She was delighted to find that Lena was a match for her niece in every way. They shared an interest in the stars, and Astra and Lena spent a lot of time in the darkness of the desert stargazing.

 

“You know, I’m starting to get a little jealous of you and Luthor,” Alex says, as Astra is thinking about their baby, about the stars. It occurs to her that a baby that is from the stars should be named so.

 

“You have nothing to be jealous of, my bravest one,” Astra says. “I have no interest in copulating with my niece’s mate. It is unseemly to even think such a thing.”

 

Alex looked at her, one eyebrow up, before laughing.

 

“You never change, do you, Astra In-Ze?”

 

“Was I supposed to change?” Astra asked, looking down at the loose clothing hanging over her bulky belly.

 

“No. I meant, your personality. You say some strange things, sometimes. I mean, I was making a joke, about you and Lena. Just teasing.”

 

Astra pouted. She is too uncomfortable to be teased. Even her ankles are swollen and the hummingbird residing in her belly has kicked her in the kidney no less than four times in the last hour. It makes her teeth ache.

 

“I am Kryptonian, Alexandra. You cannot expect me to pick up a lifetime’s worth of knowledge of your idioms and nonsensical jokes in the time I have spent among you humans,” she huffs.

 

Alex sits next to her and strokes her scalp gently. Astra takes a deep breath. It feels wonderful.

 

“I wish to call our hummingbird after a star,” Astra says, once she feels that Alex has stroked her enough to make up for her teasing.

 

“Oh. Any particular one?” Alex asks, clearly letting her mind race.

 

“I don’t know many of the names of your stars,” Astra says, thinking of the beautiful Kryptonian names that would earn them nothing but strange looks, here.

 

“Okay. Um… Lyra?” Alex suggests.

 

“That is pretty. Any more?”

 

“Carina? Celeste. Aurora? Though that one is the name of the northern lights, not a star. Vega?”

 

“What will her name be? Her after-name, is it?” Astra asks.

 

“Surname,” Alex corrects, gently.

 

“I see. Surname. I believe the surname will help, to determine what goes well and what does not?”

 

“Okay. Well, she could be Danvers-Ze. So, Lyra Danvers-Ze? Carina Danvers-Ze. Celeste Danvers-Ze?”

 

“Thank you, Brave One. I believe I get the idea. Do you really wish to join your house with the House of Ze?” Astra asks, suddenly feeling insecure. They have been together for a few months, but that is a relatively short time for earth couples to court one another, she has discovered.

 

“I’m not… that’s not what I mean. Our kid, regardless of our relationship to one another, she should have both of our names. Don’t you think? I mean, it’s up to you, because technically I only provided the extra DNA. But that’s what I would like,” Alex says, looking away nervously.

 

“I… I believe I would like that, Alexandra,” Astra says.

 

“If you wanted to… join our houses, I wouldn’t be opposed to that idea either,” Alex says, still not looking at Astra. Astra can hear Alex’s heart thumping, however.

 

“I believe I would like that, too,” Astra says, quietly. “If we were on Krypton, I would have already asked you if you would accept my bracelet.”

 

Alex turns to her, flushing, and Astra’s heart constricts in her chest. It’s painful, but beautiful, too.

 

“You would?” she asks, and suddenly Astra understands the expression ‘her heart was in her eyes’.

 

“I would. If I had one prepared, Alexandra, I would give it to you at this moment. I love you, Alexandra Danvers,” Astra says.

 

Alex kisses her, and it’s like their first kiss over again. Because this is the first time Astra has said “I love you,” to anyone but her sister and Kara, and she does love this woman, so fiercely that it makes her ache.

 

“I love you too, Astra,” Alex murmurs, kissing Astra’s neck. “So, so much.”

 

Their frantic kisses evolve into gentle love-making, gentle because their hummingbird is almost ready to emerge into the world, and they have to be careful. It is a thing of beauty, however, and Astra cries out to Rao as she comes, her eyes threatening to burst into flame. She loves this woman, and Alex loves her. There is no feeling like it, on this earth or anywhere else in the galaxy, and she tells Alex so, afterwards. They fall into a dreamless sleep, wrapped up in each other, Alex’s nose buried in Astra’s hair as always.

 

It is several hours later when the excruciating pain wakes Astra. She has never felt anything like it, and that is quite a statement for a person who has already died once. She screams Alex’s name, and feels something twist cruelly where her hummingbird is sleeping. She can hear her daughter’s heartbeat thrumming, even faster than before, and fear grips her by the throat as Alex bundles her into a coat and into the car, putting sirens and lights on, a perk of her secret agent status. The car is screaming around a corner when Astra’s stomach twists harder, and then there is a gush of liquid, and she thinks it’s her water breaking. When she dips her fingers into the mess, however, it’s red, not watery liquid. She stares at her hand dumbly for a moment before she feels a pulling sensation, and then she’s floating, alone, as if she’s back in the Phantom Zone or her pod, perhaps. And then she hears a voice she hasn’t heard in almost 40 years.

 

“Sister. You should not be here.”

 

Alura’s first words to her in 40 years, and she’s telling Astra that she’s somewhere she shouldn’t be. Some things, it appears, never change. Astra smiles and turns, and any thoughts about a hummingbird or Alexandra Danvers or Earth leave her mind entirely. She is home.

 

***

 

_Two days after Astra wakes from being shot_

“Astra, you need to stay here. There could be complications. The baby could have been hurt by the bullets. You need to stay here!”

 

This is the third time they have had this conversation, and Astra is becoming weary. Alexandra is a brave and strong human, a worthy mate, a beautiful woman. But on this subject she is overreacting, and she knows it. Why she continues in this vein, Astra has no idea.

 

“Alexandra,” she says, patiently. “I have checked on the baby myself. Kara has scanned her body extensively. Our child is healthy and happy and growing. We have no reason to worry. I have been under the sun lamps for the better part of a week. I am fully healed. No scarring, no illness. Nothing at all, therefore, to worry about. I simply wish to go home,” she says, and she thinks it’s her final word that changes Alex’s mind, because Alex’s entire face lights up when she says ‘home’.

 

“Okay, Astra,” Alex says, shaking her head, perhaps at herself, Astra thinks. “We’ll do it your way. But I want to monitor you, so I’m bringing some equipment home, okay? No complaints.”

 

Astra nods, and Alex smiles at her tentatively.

 

“We can go home, and then I wish to… Netflix and Chill? Kara tells me this is the phrase. I wish to watch more of the imprisoned women. Their lives are surprisingly rich and entertaining,” Astra says. She is entirely confused when Alex’s face turns red as a beet. “Did I upset you, Alexandra? Do you not like the prison ladies? Because I liked the upside-down show with the creatures and the little girl. She reminds me of Kara.”

 

Alex shakes her head, clearly trying to get control of herself before speaking.

 

“Um… who told you that, Netflix and Chill thing?” Alex asked.

 

“My Little One. She said it is what people ask each other when they wish to watch television together.”

 

Alex’s eyes narrowed.

 

“The little shit. I’ll be back in a minute, Astra. Don’t go anywhere, will you?”

 

Astra nods, bemused, and she begins to pack up the few belongings that Alex had brought into her room from home, unable to listen to their conversation because of all the lead in the walls. She finds it odd that Kara works with an organisation who so blatantly block her abilities. Clearly they do not trust her. It is a puzzle.

 

“Okay, so that’s out of the way,” Alex says, rolling her eyes. “In future, before you use any idioms that Kara teaches you, please ask me or Vasquez. Kara’s fucking with you.”

 

“In what way is she… fucking with me?” Astra asks, hesitantly.

 

“She… Netflix and Chill is young people’s slang, for having sex,” Alex says, flustered.

 

Astra thinks about it, and then laughs heartily.

 

“That is a great jest. She always had a wonderful sense of humour. I must find a way to ‘get her back’, is it?”

 

Alex nods, bemused.

 

“You will help?” Astra asks, and Alex nods, a smile appearing at the thought.

 

“Of course,” she says. “I have a few ideas, actually.

 

(It is a few weeks before Kara walks into her bathroom to find a full-sized shark thrashing in the bathtub. It’s an extremely realistic hologram which Alex and Astra build together, and Kara is so frightened that she jumps and bursts into the (mercifully empty) apartment above, covering her bathroom in plaster and leaving a repair bill that the DEO are forced to pay. Astra still thinks it a great jest, but unfortunately Director J’onzz does not agree, and further practical jokes are vetoed.)

 

When they return to Alex’s apartment, an apartment that Astra now thinks of as theirs, she is so relieved to be home with her baby still safe in her belly that she cries. Alex doesn’t understand why, but she wraps her arms around Astra, stroking her back and kissing the top of her head as Astra cries into her chest.

 

“I am sorry, Brave One. I do not… I barely remember crying at all, before I died. I blame you,” Astra said, in a rare moment of levity. She knows that Alex is still guilt-stricken over her actions, but Astra now finds it more amusing than anything else. On this planet, she has actually been killed, until Rao’s sibling, Sol, returned her to life. Why not enjoy the miracle for what it is? She no longer needs to be the dour General, though she will if she must.

 

“Are you messing with me right now, Astra?” Alex asks, drawing back and raising an eyebrow. She looks so beautiful that Astra is moved to kiss her, and so she does. She pulls Alex to her and claims her mouth hungrily, teasing her tongue and nipping at her lips. She laughs as Alex pulls back, her chest heaving.

 

“What’s so funny?” Alex manages, looking thoroughly debauched.

 

“Nothing. This. All of it. You killed me, Alex, and yet here we are kissing one another. I had no desire to kiss Non, do you know that? If we had been allowed to breed, our child would have been born in a birthing pod. No contact between us was necessary. But this, this contact between us? It thrills every cell of my body. So I laugh, because it’s beautiful and because it is funny, Alexandra. Enemies who wish to… what is it you humans call it? Fuck?”

 

Alex’s eyes darken as Astra says the coarse human word.

  
“Yes. That’s what we call it. Fucking.”

 

She draws the word out a little, and Astra’s eyes are drawn to her lips, almost involuntarily. Alex licks her bottom lip deliberately.

 

“I… could you show me how to do this? Fucking?” Astra asks, eyes widening.

 

Alex responds with what sounds like a growl as she pushes Astra onto the couch on her back. Their kisses grow frantic and desperate in their intensity, and it isn’t long before Alex has Astra begging for more of the exquisite touches she is bestowing on Astra. It is sweet and beautiful and it makes her burn on the inside, and when she reaches orgasm she feels that she has seen the face of Rao.

                            

“Alex…” she manages, after a while. “That was… I cannot believe I have never felt that before.”

 

“I know,” Alex says, eyes far away. “I remember after my first time with Maggie, and it was like I had been struck by lightning or something. It was so different to being with men.”

 

“I can imagine,” Astra says, smiling blissfully. “Now, Brave One, you must show me how you did the thing you did that made my face go numb. You don’t have any of our powers, somehow, do you?” Astra asks, narrowing her eyes.

 

“No, Astra, I don’t,” Alex says, rolling her eyes. “It’s just practice.”

 

Astra practises for almost the entire night until Alex has just given up, falling asleep with Astra still inside her. Humans don’t have the same stamina as Kryptonians, it would seem, on earth. Nonetheless, this day has changed Astra’s world. Rao has let her live again, has let her have a child, and has given her this goddess of a human. She sighs out her thanks in Kryptonese before falling into a deep sleep, Alex wrapped around her, one hand protectively on her baby bump. Happy isn’t a thing that Astra has felt very often, but right now, she is entirely happy. One thought does stick, however, as she’s falling under. Lillian Luthor and her son are threats that must be eliminated. She makes a vow to Rao that as soon as her hummingbird is born and safe, she will see to it that those who hurt her and her blood are dealt with.

 

***

 

A few weeks after Astra is shot, Kara asks if she can bring Lena for dinner. She is predictably over-excited about her aunt and adoptive sister becoming a couple, and she wants them to meet with the woman she loves, too. They agree, and while Alex is cautious, she soon finds that she and Lena are very much on the same wavelength.

 

“So, Agent Danvers. How did you manage to snag your Kryptonian?” Lena asks, innocently, after her first glass of wine. There’s a devilish glint in her eye that says this is more than an idle question.

 

“Well, you know. I met her on the battlefield, tried to persuade her to come over to our side, then killed her. Obviously I assumed that by doing that, I would accidentally get her pregnant with my baby and that she’d come back from the dead a year later ready to give birth to our child,” Alex says blandly.

 

“Oh, that old chestnut?” Lena drawls, eyes crinkling at the edge a little. “What a cliché.”

 

“I know. What about you?” Alex asks, taking a sip of her wine. Astra is watching them both with narrowed eyes, unsure of what’s happening.

 

“You know. My brother blew up a spaceship, I was supposed to be on it, Kara was investigating me, I was attacked with drones and then with bombs and she saved my life. Then I was suspected of releasing my alien-murdering mother from jail and Kara cleared my name and saved my life, and then I was pushed out the window of my own office and she popped by to catch me. And then I accidentally caused a Daxamite invasion of Earth, and was forced into making the planet uninhabitable for them, including the Daxamite who was Kara’s boyfriend. And here we are, six months later and we’re in love. You know, the usual.”

 

“Man, how dull is that? I mean, they’re never going to make a romcom out of that. Couldn’t you have spilled your coffee on her or something?” Alex says, shaking her head. Astra is just plain gaping now, with no idea what’s going on, and she jumps when both Lena and Alex burst into laughter.

 

“You should see your face, Aunt Astra,” Kara says, when everyone has stopped laughing. “They were just messing around. Because the stories of how we got together, both couples, are just ridiculous. So they’re making it into a joke.”

 

Astra nods, bemused, and Alex has to stifle a snigger when she meets Lena’s eyes. She hasn’t had a giggling fit like that since high school. She can tell, right there and then, that she and Lena are going to get on just fine.

 

After that dinner, Alex goes to see Lena in her office to ask her to come to the DEO and work on finding a defence against Kryptonite.

 

“For Kara, for Astra. And for our hummingbird,” Alex says, without thinking.

 

“Hummingbird?” Lena asks, one perfect eyebrow raised.

 

“Yes. Sorry. That’s what Astra calls her. When she woke at first she was in her funeral pod, and she could hear a heartbeat that sounded so fast and tiny that she thought it ought to belong to a hummingbird. She wasn’t thinking straight, of course, because she’d just been brought back from the dead. Even after she realised that she was pregnant, she still called the baby her hummingbird. So it just stuck.”

 

“I see. I like that. It’s Colibri, I think, in Italian. It sounds a little too much like a typeface from Microsoft Word or something, though,” Lena muses.

 

“Yeah. We’re still working on the name,” Alex says.

 

“So. Show me what you have so far,” Lena suggests, taking something from her bag. “This is the information I was able to get from Lex’s research. Everything he knew about Kryptonite.” She hands a small hard drive to Alex, who takes it gratefully.

 

“Thank you, Lena. I wasn’t sure about you, but I am really glad you’re here,” Alex says, and Lena smiles.

 

“I asked Kara to have J’onn read my mind the day she told me about herself and about him and his abilities. He agreed right away, and was able to confirm that I’m not planning world domination. Or at least, not through killing Kryptonians or other aliens. I want to dominate the world markets with LCorp products, of course, but those products are going to be humanitarian in nature. I want Kara and the other aliens on this planet to be safe, and I’m glad that the DEO is here to keep earth safe from the aliens who aren’t so benevolent in their intentions. I don’t know how I missed out on the Luthor crazy gene, but whatever caused it, I want to make a different, Agent Danvers. I care about what happens to the world, and I want the name Luthor to mean something good one day.”

 

Alex nods, eyes a little wide. She knew about J’onn reading Lena’s mind, but she wasn’t aware that it was Lena’s idea. She’s a little impressed, but settles for a nod.

 

“Call me Alex,” she says, and Lena beams.

 

The anti-Kryptonite shielding that Winn came up with is used as a basic idea, but eventually they come up with two ways to keep Kara and the other Kryptonians safe. There’s an injection of a substance that essentially inoculates them against the effect of the radiation coupled with a shielding device that is concealed under the ‘S’. It’s not fragile like Winn’s first try; it’s a device that essentially creates a small field that deflects certain types of radiation but increases the effect of other types (namely, the UV rays that give Kara and her people their powers). When Kara uses both together and Alex attempts to shoot her with a Kryptonite dart, it bounces off her skin harmlessly.

Alex and Lena hug, and that’s the day when Lena becomes part of their family, at least in Alex’s eyes. She has proven herself in that she’s trustworthy, but now that they’ve given up hours of their time to make this happen for their Kryptonians, Lena is family to Alex.

 

She does get a little concerned when Astra and Lena start taking trips to the desert to stargaze, but when Kara asks her if she thinks that Astra is even capable of cheating, she gets a grip. Astra In-Ze is her wife in all but name, and she would never betray their bond. If they say they are stargazing, then that is exactly what they’re doing.

 

***

                            

Stargazing _was_ part of their evenings together, but that wasn’t all. Astra had seen a certain look in Lena’s eyes when they talked about her brother and mother, and it was a look that she had seen on her own face. So when Lena mentioned a love of the stars, Astra built a Kryptonian-style telescope. It was embellished and looked very much like the one her own father had made for her Astronomy studies when she was a child. They took it out to the desert and she showed Lena several phenomena that she had never heard of. The dancing giants of Thanagar IV. The Well of Stars, blinking in and out of existence. The Heart of Darkness, a black hole that had eaten several star systems before somehow stopping in its relentless devouring, remaining static and dark. No-one from Krypton had ever tried to get close enough to take readings to find out what had happened to the black hole. It was a fascinating phenomenon, as were the others that she shared with Lena, but eventually the young Luthor asked Astra bluntly what it was that she wanted.

 

“I wish to kill your brother and mother. Or at least render them incapable of hurting my niece and my child. And Alexandra.”

 

Lena raised an eyebrow, but that was her only reaction. Astra was impressed. This woman would have made a wonderful General.

 

“Do you share my aims?” Astra asks.

 

Lena nods, chewing on the edge of her thumbnail as she thinks.

 

“Your Phantom Zone?” she asks, but she seems to already have discounted it already.

 

“Kara and I were in the Phantom Zone, and so were the occupants of Fort Rozz. We all escaped.”

 

“The Well of Stars?”

 

“I do not believe there is a way to trap anyone there. That the Daxamite’s pod left him there for so long was probably down to damage caused by the destruction of Krypton,” Astra says.

 

“And since you don’t know where the Heart of Darkness leads, that’s probably not a good idea either,” Lena muses, chewing on her thumbnail still. “So we have to kill them. Quietly and simultaneously. I think we should…”

 

The plan is a good one, and Astra agrees. They meet another three times to finalise their plans, and agree that as soon as hummingbird is born, they will take action. Astra respects Lena Luthor and finds her intelligent and a worthy match for her niece, but once they finalise her plans, what she likes most about the woman is that she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty to protect what she loves.

 

***

 

Alex is frantic. Astra is clearly in pain, and her screams are terrifying. It reminds Alex of when Astra had been injected with liquid Kryptonite. Then she just passes out, and there’s blood in her lap, and Alex drives as fast as she can to get them to the DEO, not sure if Astra is even still alive. National City General isn’t going to cut it, given that they won’t be able to do a Caesarean section or any emergency surgery without the red sun lamps that the DEO use.

 

Alex screams for help when she reaches the entrance to the DEO, and she has never more relieved to see her sister. Kara swoops in from nowhere and, seeing the scene, lifts Astra carefully in her arms and gestures for Alex to jump on for a piggyback. She carries them like that straight to the infirmary within a few seconds, and then there are medical personnel everywhere, and Alex is just standing, watching them rush around, watching Astra bleed, hands over her own mouth, trembling. Kara leads her away and wraps her cape around Alex’s shoulders, talking to her in a low, comforting voice. Someone presses a cup of something hot into her hands and she drinks it, automatically, feeling the warmth as it travels to her stomach.

 

It is two hours later when Dr Hamilton emerges from the infirmary. She’s smiling.

 

“Agent Danvers, Supergirl. Astra’s placenta tore, and that’s what caused the bleeding. Once we took the baby out, we turned off the red sun lamps and Astra healed. She’s asleep but she’s fine. The baby is just being cleaned up. Would you like to come and meet your daughter?”

 

Alex stands up, trembling, weak-kneed, wide-eyed. She follows the doctor, Kara next to her, and she is presented with a baby. There was no labour to sit through. The baby was cut from Astra’s body. She doesn’t feel ready for this. Alex takes the child carefully, supporting her head and neck, and sits down on the chair next to Astra. Her… girlfriend? looks exhausted, but peaceful. She is alive. That’s the main thing, and something in Alex gives, then. She is crying, looking down at the little squished bundle in her arms, and her daughter opens her eyes and looks at Alex for the first time. It’s like all of her Christmases have come at once. Her body must be releasing all the oxytocin it has, her scientist’s mind says, but whatever the feeling is caused by, it’s pure joy flooding every inch of Alex. She kisses the tiny cheeks, counts the fingers, and Kara coos along with her, tickling baby Danvers-Ze and laughing when she fusses.

 

“She’s beautiful,” Kara whispers, and Alex looks at her in wonder.

 

“I know. I can’t believe she’s real,” Alex confesses. “Now we have to come up with a name.”

 

“Karina. Karina Danvers-Ze. Like the star, but with a K. Because then she is a little Kara,” Astra says, sounding groggy and exhausted.

 

“Of course, baby. Karina Danvers-Ze. See? She likes it,” Alex says, in wonder, as the little girl blinks and appears to smile. Astra sits up, slowly.

 

“Is she healthy?” Astra asks, staring at their baby daughter as if she’s seeing a ghost.

 

“She is. She has all of her fingers and toes,” Dr Hamilton confirms.

 

“Thank you, doctor,” Astra says wearily.

 

Alex stands and, for the first time, hands their daughter to Astra. The look of joy on Astra’s face eclipses everything, and Alex is frozen, awestricken, as she watches her daughter look up at her mother for the first time. Alex is starting to think she might need to worship Rao, because this moment feels like a holy one.

 

“Congratulations, Mama Danvers-Ze,” Kara murmurs, hugging Alex close, almost cracking her ribs.

 

“Thank you,” she says, drawing back and wiping her eyes. “I love you,” she says, turning to Astra, and Astra looks up at her from the hospital bed, her face luminous with joy, and at that moment Alex does thank Rao, because she has never felt so happy or so fulfilled as she is in that moment, standing in a room with her baby daughter, her sister, and the woman she loves. She is pretty sure that Rao is listening, and that he would appreciate her thanks (even though it comes from a lowly human) for giving her this impossible family. Tears stream down her face and she smiles, looking at her whole world nestled together on a hospital bed.

 

For the first time in her life, Alex Danvers feels like she is worthy, and her heart swells with the relief of it. She is loved, and that makes her worthy.

 

She sits next to Astra on the bed, leaning down to kiss her daughter’s face, and Kara sits on her aunt’s other side, playing with Karina’s bare toes. The feeling of contentment that washes over their entire family is almost tangible, and she hears the medical personnel moving away, quietly, to give them their privacy.

 

There are visitors, later. J’onn, who wants to meet his granddaughter, and their friends. Winn, James, Lucy, Clark, Lois, Lena Luthor, and of course Eliza.

 

Eliza had been none too happy to hear of Alex’s relationship with Astra, but since they were already having a baby together, she kept her biting comments to a minimum. The look on her face when she comes to visit and finds Alex singing a Kryptonian lullaby to Karina makes Alex stumble a little. Her mother looks happier than she has looked since Jeremiah disappeared.

 

“Oh, Alex,” she says, smiling luminously. “I’ve never seen you so happy.”

 

Eliza puts her arms around Alex and Karina both, and she and Alex cry tears of joy into one another’s shoulders. It is a moment that heals a lot of Alex’s resentment towards her mother, and one she will never forget.

 

Astra is cautious in meeting her bondmate’s mother, but she does not allow any disrespect in word or deed against her family. Alex is filled with a strange heat when Eliza begins to says something about their arrangement being ‘unorthodox’ and Astra simply stops and holds one finger up, silencing her mother.

 

“Our daughter is a gift from Rao. Alexandra herself is a gift from Rao. I will not hear anything to disparage my family.”

 

And that is that. Eliza nods, respect in her eyes, and any lingering doubts that she might harbour, she keeps to herself.

 

When they arrive home from hospital, in between rounds of changing diapers and feeding and bathing an energetic half-Kryptonian, they manage to make love in hurried, short bouts. Alex thank Rao over and over in the first days that Astra’s body healed immediately, because after the trauma of Karina’s birth, they needed this closeness, needed to feel that the other was alive. It was like the world’s most exhausting honeymoon, and Alex couldn’t have been happier.

 

Even honeymoons have to come to an end, however, and Alex is eventually forced to return to her job. J’onn has given her a few months off, but he needs his second-in-command, and Alex has a strong sense of duty. Being separated from Karina is heart-breaking, however, much worse than any separation she has ever endured before, and she is wracked with guilt and pain over it. However, Astra is looking after their baby and when she is called to assist Kara, which is thankfully not often, Eliza and even Lena Luthor step in. It’s working incredibly well, and she and Astra are speaking about being bonded at Kal’s fortress, the closest thing they have to a holy place on this planet. And then the news comes that the Luthors – Lex and Lillian, not Lena – have been murdered, simultaneously.

 

Things are not quite so okay after that.

 

***

 

Astra’s days are filled with the love of Rao, if not his light. Her hummingbird has taken flight, and Karina Danvers-Ze is the most precious thing in the universe to her, followed by Alex and Kara, of course. They are a happy family, and even when Alex leaves to return to her job, Astra is surrounded by joy and a comfort she has never known before. She has a daughter, a baby, a person who loves her unconditionally. A child grown of her own body. Not to mention her soon-to-be bondmate, Alexandra, and her darling niece, the girl she thought lost on Krypton. Life could not possibly be better, she remembers thinking, and later she curses herself for it.

 

Astra spends a lot of time thinking about how she saw Alura’s face for the first time since she was sentenced to Fort Rozz. How Alura spoke to her with love and concern, rather than hatred and scorn. It did not matter whether it was an hallucination caused by the blood loss or a true vision, as far as Astra is concerned, because she has been filled with a strange kind of serenity ever since. Because her sister still loves her. To lose a twin is akin to losing a lung, she thinks, because life after Alura died was one long fight to live, to eat scraps, to survive. But to know Alura loves her, wherever her sister is? That is a gift that no-one can ever take from Astra.

 

It’s Lena Luthor who comes to her in a panic one afternoon while Kara and Alex are both at work. As they agreed between themselves during their stargazing, Lena has been using her resources to monitor her brother and mother’s activities to ensure that they do not get another chance to hurt Kara, Astra or Karina. Or any member of their group of family and friends.

 

“She has gold Kryptonite, Astra. I don’t know where she got it, but she has it. I saw a video. She used it on one of your people from Fort Rozz – Dal-Zar?”

 

Astra nods, feeling herself pale and shiver. Dal-Zar had always been a coward, and had fled Fort Rozz more or less immediately upon landing on earth. She had been harmless, however, and her time in Fort Rozz was not deserved.

 

“I saw my mother use the Kryptonite, and she… she stabbed the Kryptonian, and I watched her die, Astra. She was fully human. My mother intends to use it on you and Kara both, to kill you, and then to take your daughter so that she can raise her as a super-soldier,” Lena says, looking terrified.

 

“Did your ‘source’ manage to procure a sample?” Astra asks.

 

Lena nods. She lifts a lead-cased box, the size of those used for jewellery on Earth.

 

“Do you have enough to test it? To see if our present shields will stop it?”

 

“I believe so,” Lena says, looking a little less panicked, now.

 

“Good. Then do your tests, Lena Luthor. But please. Take all precautions. Keep this substance as far from my niece and from my daughter as you can. If they become powerless, your mother will be relentless.”

 

“I’ll take every precaution, I promise,” Lena says, and she packs up and leaves, presumably to go to the most secure of her research labs.

 

Astra broods for the following few days, completely on edge, and on a whim she ‘borrows’ one of Alex’s guns, keeping it on her person at all times. If she becomes powerless, she has to be able to defend her family.

 

Her precautions are unnecessary, as it happens. Lena ‘tweaks’ their Kryptonite shields, and they use Non as a test subject. Perhaps it is unethical, but if he loses his powers from the exposure, it is better that it is him than Astra or her baby. Lena and Astra tell Kara and Alex that they are simply widening the protection of the Kryptonite shielding, especially given Kal-El’s exposure to silver Kryptonite during the Daxamite invasion. It is agreed that they will test it on Non, and the only pair of Nth metal handcuffs that the DEO possesses are used to keep him chained. He is given the Kryptonite antidote along with a shield, and then Alexandra stabs him with the gold Kryptonite. It does not penetrate his skin, and his powers are still in evidence. He uses his powers, minus the heat vision, in an escape attempt, after which his powers are bound by red sun lamps from the infirmary instead until the Kryptonite antidote in his blood wears off and he is once again susceptible to the effects of the radiation.

 

Shielding firmly in place, Astra and Lena meet one final time to ‘stargaze’ and the next morning Astra leaves Karina at the DEO with Eliza, who has been helping with a project of Alex’s. If their mission goes wrong, she wants her daughter in a safe location.

 

At precisely 12 noon, the lights and security feeds in Stryker Island prison, Cell Block X, are switched off. A young woman, unrecognisable in black tactical gear and a mask, slips undetected into a cell where a bald man is sleeping.

 

“Goodbye, Lex,” she says, before she pulls the trigger on the silenced pistol in her hand. She takes a small sample of his DNA after checking his vitals to ensure that he really is dead.

 

At the same time, in what can only be described as an underground lair, the location of which was provided by the same informant who had procured the gold Kryptonite, Astra sets off a black-body field generator provided by Lena Luthor. It works in a similar fashion to an electro-magnetic pulse, and the cyborg guarding Lillian Luthor immediately powers down, blue light fading from his left eye, and all electronic equipment in the area switches off immediately. Astra moves in the blink of an eye, scanning the area with her x-ray vision, finding that all of the Cadmus soldiers are locked inside various rooms in the complex, electronic locks shorted out. She looks on the face of her daughter’s would-be kidnapper, and growls the woman’s name.

 

“Lillian Luthor?”

 

“And you must be Astra In-Ze,” Lillian Luthor says, inclining her head politely. “Delighted to meet you.”

 

Astra grins, feral.

 

“It has been a pleasure, but I believe our business is done,” Lillian says, standing, an open box in her hand. Inside is a small dagger formed of a gold substance.

 

Astra blanches, beginning to back away. It is all pretence, of course. Lillian smiles, then, delighted.

 

“You Kryptonians, always thinking with your biceps. I suppose it was too much to ask that we might get one of your best scientists or a strategist, perhaps. No, we have to get the prisoners and infants who believe themselves gods. You will not be missed, Astra In-Ze,” she says, nostrils flaring. “Your spawn will be humanity’s saviour, once I have trained her properly, and killed that niece of yours.”

 

Astra is unable to hide her reaction to the threat to Kara and Karina’s lives; it is pure fury.

 

“It’s a shame you people never think things through,” Lillian sighs, and she steps forward, hand darting out, blade first.

 

It bounces off Astra’s skin. Because of the force of her attempt at stabbing Astra, Lillian’s hand shatters. She falls to the ground, looking up at Astra in confusion.

 

“How did you…?”

 

“Your daughter is a remarkable woman, Dr Luthor. A true visionary. Strong, intelligent, and ready to do what must be done. I believe she learned that from you. Say hello to your son for me when you reach your underworld,” Astra says, and Lillian’s eyes widen in fear. Astra kneels beside Lillian and takes her head in her hands, almost tenderly. She smiles as she twists, and then Lillian’s head is facing the wrong way. As she was instructed, Astra takes a small sample of DNA from the Luthor woman, and then she moves to the cyborg. His entire skeleton has been modified with cybernetic implants. She decides that she will leave his body for the DEO to find, too, later. They may be able to use the technology to help people. She scans his body, looking for a weak point, and finds a tiny join between his cranial implant and his cerebral cortex. She pulls a tall, slim blade from her waistband, and inserts it carefully into his brain, killing him instantly. The black body field generator has knocked his cybernetic implants off and they will not restart without the biological brain to command them. Hank Henshaw is dead.

 

Astra zips around the base, using her heat vision to seal the doors where the Cadmus soldiers are trapped in their quarters and training rooms. She ensures to leave space for air, but no-one will be forcing their way out of these doors. She leaves the base, satisfied with her work, and after dropping off the DNA sample, meets Lena Luthor at their pre-arranged meeting place, a coffee shop near Kara’s place of work. Thanks to Lena’s technological genius in building the holograms that have been projected inside of the coffee shop, and the money she has spent on bribing the staff to ensure that no-one approaches them, it will appear as if Astra and Lena have been enjoying a long lunch when the news comes in that the Luthor son is dead (and when the DEO receive an ‘anonymous’ tip about the Cadmus base that is now both prison and graveyard).

 

Astra picks Lena up from the back alley and speeds into the coffee shop, switching the holograms off within a split second, ensuring that if anyone checks the security tapes they will only find that she and Lena have enjoyed coffee and then lunch together.

 

Lena smiles at her nervously, one eyebrow raised.

 

“Did you find those chess pieces you lost? The queen and the knight, was it?” Lena asks.

 

“I did. Sadly, they were badly damaged. They won’t be able to be used again,” Astra says, and she sees a flash of regret pass over Lena’s features. She understands. She is not sure she would have Lena’s strength. To kill one’s family, even for the betterment of a whole planet? She cannot fathom it. She gives Lena a nod of respect and calls a waitress over to bring them some ‘more’ food and coffee. It gives Lena a moment to collect her thoughts.

 

“And you? Did you contact the young man you had been looking for? A friend of a friend, was it?” Astra asks, as if she’s asking after an acquaintance.

 

“I didn’t find the man I remembered. But the one I did find… he left. Had somewhere else to be.”

 

Astra nodded.

 

“And how has your day been, otherwise?” she asks, smiling.

 

“It has been… productive,” Lena says, smiling too. She looks relieved.

 

Her phone chimes, and she stares at it for a long moment.

 

“Thank the Lord,” Lena says. “I had to run some background checks on new employees – did I tell you about this, before?” she asks, and Astra nods.

 

“Yes. You wanted to be sure they were who they said they were, am I right?”

 

“Yes. That’s exactly it. Thankfully, they are who they said they were. I had doubts, but it seems I was worried for nothing.”

 

Their DNA samples have been processed, then, and both Luthors are definitely dead. Unless they have somehow cloned themselves, the threat presented by Lex and Lillian Luthor has been dealt with. Lena, ever the planner, has actually employed two new staff members at her research lab and has run background checks on them. Just in case someone is listening using a parabolic mic. She is a thorough young woman, and the more Astra knows of her, the more she is satisfied that she is a true match for Kara.

 

“I am sure that is a relief,” Astra says, as their food arrives. Lena is eating a plate of leaves, and Astra’s curiosity is piqued by it. “Might I try some of this?”

 

“Of course,” Lena says, and there’s a glint in her eye that reminds Astra of Kara when she was younger and liked to play practical jokes on her parents and Astra.

 

Astra’s eyes narrow and she takes a careful bite of the leaves, and immediately her mouth is filled with the taste of evil. She coughs, trying not to spit the offending substance out. She takes a drink from her coffee cup and washes down the evil leaves, glaring at Lena the whole time.

 

“I see you truly are a Luthor, trying to poison me when I meet you for a peaceful lunch,” she accuses, and Lena laughs, a full-throated laugh that sounds bright and hopeful.

 

“I’m sorry, General. Who knew that all it would take to bring you down is a simple leafy green?” Lena says.

 

“I believe you already knew this, Lena Luthor,” Astra says, darkly, and they laugh.

 

It’s just then that a harried Supergirl arrives in the coffee shop in the blink of an eye, carrying Alex in her arms.

 

“Little One? Alexandra? What has happened? Is it Karina?” Astra leaps to her feet and asks all of her questions in one desperate breath.

 

“I think you know why we’re here, Astra,” Alex says, eyes flat.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Alex. I came to meet Lena for coffee a few hours ago and it ran into lunch. Did I miss an appointment? If so, I apologise for leaving you alone, my Brave One,” Astra says, eyes furrowed. She pours all of her energy into believing their lie, and she sees that Lena is on her feet, too, looking at Kara worriedly.

 

“What’s wrong, darling?” she asks, and Kara stares into her eyes. “Please, Kara. You’re scaring me. Is Astra’s baby okay?”

 

“She’s fine,” Alex bursts out. “She’s safe, in the DEO, where you left her this morning, Astra. Why?”

 

“I wished for some… what is it you call it? Adult time? I am becoming tired from the interaction on Karina’s level. I simply wished to see a friend,” Astra says, looking offended and upset.

 

“Kara, please. What’s happened?” Lena asks, and there are tears in her eyes. Astra is impressed.

 

“I’m sorry, Lena. But your brother… Lex. He’s dead. And so is Lillian. Someone – or a number of someones – killed them both this morning, simultaneously,” Kara says, and Lena’s chin wobbles. She sits down, suddenly, and gives the impression that she is completely in shock. Astra can hear Lena’s heart hammering in her chest.

 

“When did this happen, Alexandra?” Astra asks.

 

Alex scoffs.

 

“You know exactly when, Astra. 12 noon. They both died straight away. Someone twisted Lillian’s neck 180°. And then sealed her soldiers into their rooms with what could have been heat vision. They killed the Cyborg too, with a very precise knife thrust. I find it hard to believe that a human could have done those things,” Alex says, mouth in a thin line.

 

“Alexandra. I would gladly have ended the Luthors. They are a threat to my family. But I am here, in a coffee shop, where I have been all morning. You can check with the staff should you wish, or anyone else who has been here this morning. Lena and I arrived around… 10.30, I believe? We were planning to simply have coffee, but we enjoyed talking and had just ordered lunch,” Astra said, indicating Lena’s evil leaves and her own meaty sandwich.

 

Alex clearly doesn’t believe her, but she grunts and then goes to speak to the staff, all of whom confirm that Lena and Astra have been there since 10.30. One pimply young man, when pressed, confirms that Lena paid him to stay away from their table other than to deliver their coffees.

 

Alex is clearly dissatisfied with the answers she has been given, but she simply apologises to Astra for suspecting her, and she and Kara leave Astra and Lena to their lunch. The small crowd in the coffee shop gape at the two women who continue eating after Supergirl and her colleague are gone, but after a few moments things are quiet again.

 

“I think that went well,” Lena says, finishing her leaves with a small smile.

 

“I think so, too,” Astra says.

 

“So, heat vision?” Lena says, so quietly that only a Kryptonian would have picked up what she was saying.

 

Astra murmurs a few words in Kryptonese, a language that she knows Lena knows, and Lena’s eyes widen a little.

 

“ _I matched the temperature of my heat vision with the welding equipment I have seen the DEO use. It should be impossible to tell how it was done. I could not leave those soldiers to escape in case they were a threat to my family again.”_

“That was a well-thought out move, the other night? In that chess game,” Lena says, as she takes a sip of her coffee.

 

“I do not like to sacrifice the pawns, but they can present a threat later,” Astra says, nodding. They talk about LCorp’s most recent technological advances and the holiday they have planned for when Karina is a little older, to an island owned by Lena’s family. Or rather, by Lena herself, since she is the last remaining Luthor. And then they hug and go their separate ways. Astra goes to the DEO and finds Alex in the lab with Eliza and their daughter, and she smiles to see her girls together. Karina coos when she sees Astra, and she is more than happy to take her daughter from Eliza and hold her, listen to her heartbeat, listen to the tiny whooshes of her lungs. What she and Lena Luthor did today was for this little girl, and Astra does not regret it.

 

“Any more news?” she asks, and Alex looks at her expressionlessly.

 

“We have a team at the Cadmus base collecting Lillian and the cyborg’s remains. And taking the Cadmus agents prisoner. It seems that someone knocked out everything on the base including the cyborg’s implants. So it must have been a black-body field generator,” Alex says.

 

“Is that so?” Astra asks, raising an eyebrow. “That sounds very scientifically advanced for your planet.”

 

“There are only a few people who could produce something like that, and only three in this city. Me, Winn, and Lena.”

 

“I see. But it wasn’t one of you, I assume. So perhaps a visitor from elsewhere?” Astra asks.

 

“Hmm,” Alex says, suspiciously. Astra kisses her daughter’s head, breathing in the scent of her, and she feels no remorse. If her family were at risk again, she would do the same thing.

 

The investigation into Lillian and Lex Luthor’s murders went on for some time, but the NCPD eventually gave up, since the perpetrators had essentially done them a favour and had left little to no trace of who they were. Alex didn’t speak to Astra for a week, other than to talk about Karina, but she slowly warmed up afterwards, and by the time they were sitting on the beach of a tropical island in the Caribbean, she appeared to have forgotten entirely about the Luthors. Kara had been suspicious about Lena’s possible involvement, too, but since Lena swore she was innocent (and Astra could attest that her heartbeat never faltered, always steady) and there was no evidence to the contrary, Kara decided to let the matter go. Now they are all sunning themselves, with Lena and Karina under a large parasol, and life could not be any better, in Astra’s opinion. She sits with the woman she loves next to her and her niece and daughter on her other side, and she is bathed in Sol’s light, and she knows that she is loved. She could never have imagined such a fate; she expected to languish in the Phantom Zone until she went mad and killed herself, not to be surrounded by family and happiness. Rao’s path can be convoluted, but if this is her reward, she will gladly continue where he wishes her to go.

 

It is a few months later when Alex asks her, again.

 

“Did you kill them, Astra?”

 

Astra turns to look at Alex, her expression blank.

 

“Why do you ask, my Brave One?”

 

“I… I want us to be bonded, Astra, and I can’t do that if there are any lies between us,” Alex says, leaning back against the kitchen counter, arms folded.

 

Astra’s mind, for some reason, is thrown back to her time in the funeral pod. She remembers the lack of anything or anyone around her, except for the sound of a hummingbird. Karina is with Kara and Lena, having a sleepover. She isn’t sure why she’s thinking about her hummingbird now…

 

Her eyes widen. She can hear that sound, and this time it’s not coming from her abdomen. It’s coming from Alex’s.

 

“You are pregnant, Brave One?” she asks, eyes wide.

 

Alex smiles shyly.

 

“I wasn’t sure, but if you can hear a heartbeat, then – yes,” Alex says. She is trying not to smile, trying to be stern, but she can’t quite manage it.

 

Astra rushes forward, putting her ear to Alex’s abdomen. She can hear the fluttering, and when she draws back, she uses her vision to see into Alex’s uterus. There is a tiny organism there, heartbeat thrumming away.

 

“You are, my Brave One,” she says, hand to her mouth. “You are carrying a child. How did this happen?” Astra asks, eyes wide, standing to face Alex.

 

“So far as I can tell, it’s a certain type of fluid exchange. You remember the night after Lena’s birthday, when we…?” Alex trails off, her face red.

 

Astra does, indeed, remember. It was one of her favourite memories of recent months, in fact.

 

“I remember,” she says. Her smile is so wide that her face is beginning to ache. She cannot understand how she has been so blessed by Rao, but she is most certainly not complaining about it. She closes her eyes, sending a prayer of thanks to the sun god and to his sibling, Sol.

 

“So. Now you know,” Alex says, spreading her hands. “So will you tell me?”

 

“I… what actions do you plan to take, Alexandra?” Astra asks, sighing.

 

“None. They’re dead and a threat to my family is gone. I’m not going to mess with that, and I’m certainly not going to do something that will put you in prison. I just want to know, Astra. It’s a hell of a lie to be hanging there, between us,” Alex says, eyes steady on Astra’s.

 

“Very well, then. I did kill Lillian Luthor and the cyborg. Lena killed her brother. We decided after they made the attempt on Karina’s life that they needed to be eliminated. We tried to find a safe place to leave them, but there was no way to incarcerate them somewhere that they could not escape. We made a plan and we executed it. I am not sorry, Alex. I almost wish that I were. But I am not Kara. I am a soldier, and a soldier kills to protect those under their protection.”

 

Astra meets Alex’s eyes evenly. Alex doesn’t say anything for a long time, but when she does, it’s not want Astra wants to hear.

 

“I need you to move out for a while. Stay with Kara or at the DEO. I need time to think.”

 

Astra is frozen in place.

 

“You said that you would take no action, Alexandra,” Astra says, feeling a little betrayed.

 

“I did. And I won’t turn you in, or do anything that will implicate you or Lena in the murders. But I do need time to think about us, Astra.”

 

Alex’s expression doesn’t change, though her heartbeat speeds a little.

 

“Very well, Brave One. I will be waiting,” Astra says, moving at superspeed to pack some clothes and fly out of the apartment window.

 

She stays with Kara and Lena, in Lena’s surprisingly modest penthouse apartment, and while she doesn’t tell Kara the reason for Alex reconsidering their relationship, she does tell Lena. At least once Kara has gone to CatCo for the day.

 

“She knows what we did?” Lena asks. She is not worried, and Astra doesn’t understand why.

 

“She does.”

 

“But she won’t turn us in,” Lena says, and her voice is certain.

 

“No,” Astra says.

 

“Good,” Lena says. “I’m sorry she’s taking this out on you.”

 

“She’s not. Not really,” Astra sighs. “I deserve it. For lying to her, if nothing else.”

 

“Perhaps. But to ask you to leave? That seems a little harsh.”

 

“She is pregnant with another child, Lena. She needs to be sure that the other parent of her children is worthy. I will not blame her if she does not find me so.”

 

“You’re an idiot, Astra In-Ze. She loves you, and you already have a daughter together. This is just a bump in the road. There is no way you won’t be back with her, bonded before Rao, by the time your newest hummingbird is born,” Lena says. “Congratulations, by the way, Astra,” she says, sincerely.

 

Astra smiles at her and feels a little better, all of a sudden. Perhaps this is not the end.

 

It is not, as it turns out. After several long discussions between her and Alex, and between Kara and Lena, too, they decide that while the Danvers sisters would not have taken that action themselves, they understand why their partners did. Alex invites Astra home and then, a few nights later, into her bed, and things are as close to perfect as they have ever been.

 

***

 

“Stop playing with the collar, Astra,” Lena hisses out of the side of her mouth. Astra looks at her, impressed. She tries to copy the movement of Lena’s mouth but Lena elbows her in the ribs instead, quickly realising her mistake as she bruises her elbow. The next words to come out of her mouth are “Stupid Kryptonians,” and Astra is a little confused. What has she done, now? The Luthor heir has been a little volatile recently, possibly due to the realisation that she, too, is pregnant. Kryptonian physiology is filled with backup systems, it appears, and more than one of those relate to mating. They have so far discovered that under a yellow sun, Kryptonian blood, saliva and other bodily fluids can cause pregnancy in both human and Kryptonian hosts. It is a revelation to Kara, especially, who thought she would never get to have a family because Kal-El has been unable to breed with his human. It turns out that a small adjustment in a hormone is needed for a male Kryptonian, and once that adjustment is made, Lois Lane, too, is pregnant in short order.

 

“Jesus, Astra. Leave the fucking collar alone!”

 

Astra starts, pulling the offending fingers from the colour of her dress military uniform. She has no idea where Kara got it from; so far as she knew, all of her belongings had been lost with Fort Rozz, but Kara had appeared with it a few week’s previous, looking almost grey with exhaustion. Astra had simply thanked her, carrying her niece to the DEO to be treated under the sunbeds to replace whatever energy she had spent on this mammoth quest.

 

“She’s here,” Lena says, and Astra’s head snaps up.

 

“Alexandra,” she breathes. Alex looks like an angel. She is wearing typical Kryptonian bonding garb, a long white robe with the crest of In-Ze on it, delicately sown in silver. Astra has no idea where this dress has come from. Behind Alex is Kara, carrying Karina in her arms. Their daughter is almost a year old, and Astra finds it hard to see how she ended up here, in a room with people she considers friends and family. She had never expected to have another life after Fort Rozz, and this sort of life is something she would never have considered in any case. She is, however, deliriously happy.

 

The ceremony is short, like most Kryptonian ceremonies, and Kal-El says the ancient words that bond them for eternity. They resonate through Astra, and she looks up to see the statues of Jor and Zor-El, Alura and Lara Lor-Van looking down at them all. The Fortress of Solitude has, up until now, been just that. But now it can be the centre of a new Kryptonian race on this planet, and Astra can feel Rao’s love and approval in her heart. Alex kisses her and she feels the familiar fire race through her veins, and she silently thanks her god again for giving her everything she could want in these people, people from the other side of the galaxy, savage and primitive in some ways but in other ways, perfect.

 

She dances to the sound of Kara’s singing, Karina tucked into one arm and her other arm around Alex. They dance and she listens to the heartbeat of her hummingbird, growing in her wife’s belly, and all Astra can think is that this must be what peace feels like.


End file.
